R  PRESIDENT 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


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LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 

from 
CARL  SANDBURG'S  LIBRARY 


III 


STATUE  OF  LINCX;)LN   ERECTED   IN   LINCOLN.  NEBRASKA 
DEDICATED  SEPTEMBER  2.   1912 

DA.NTEL    C.     FRENCH,    SC. 


Our  Martyr  President 
Abraham  Lincoln 

LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


ORATION 
By  HON.  GEO.  BANCROFT 

BURIAL  ORATION 
By  BISHOP  SIMPSON 

EULOGY 
By  R.  S.  STORRS,  Jr..  D.D. 

Reprinted  from  the  original  edition 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCaNNATI 


CONTENTS 


PAQB 

Publishers'  Note 5 

Preface  to  the  Original  Edition 7 

ADDRESSES  AND  SERMONS 

I 

Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 9 

II 

Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  D.D 25 

III 
Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  D.D 40 

IV 
Rev.  Charles  S.  Robinson 60 

V 

Rev.  William  Ives  Budinqton,  D.D 85 

VI 
Rev.  John  McClintock,  D.D.,  LL.D 102 

v' 
^■,  VII 

Rev.  a.  N.  Littlejohn,  D.D 118 

3 


4  CONTENTS 

VIII 
Rev.  Theodore  L.  Guyler 132 

IX 

Rev.  Elbert  S.  Porter,  D.D 146 

X 

Rev.  S.  D.  Burchard,  D.D 155 

XI 

Rev.  Samuel  T.  Spear,  D.D 174 

XII 

Rev.  Robert  Lowry 188 

XIII 
Rev.  Albert  S.  Hunt 202 

XIV 
Rev.  Henry  B.  Smith,  D.D 214 

ORATIONS 

Hon.  George  Bancroft 237 

Bishop  Simpson 247 

Richard  S.  Storrs,  Jr.,  D.D 265 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address 319 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

The  original  edition  of  the  Lincoln  Memorial  Ad- 
dresses, published  in  1865,  has  long  since  been  out  of 
print.  The  fiftieth  anniversary  of  President  Lincoln's 
death  seems  an  opportune  time  for  a  reissue.  These 
sermons  and  addresses  portray  the  feeling  of  the 
nation  in  its  hour  of  dire  calamity  as  no  other  writing 
can  possibly  do.  Historical  matter  of  this  character 
should  not  be  allowed  to  perish,  and  the  publishers 
feel  that  they  are  performing  a  patriotic  duty  as  well 
as  enjoying  a  patriotic  privilege  in  giving  these  ora- 
tions and  addresses  a  new  lease  of  life. 

The  Abingdon  Press. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  ORIGINAL  EDITION 

To  OUR  Readers  : 

We  offer  you  a  memeuto  of  times  of  greatest  mo- 
ment, of  events  of  wondrous  and  tragic  interest,  of 
stupendous  and  successful  crime,  of  unparalleled  na- 
tional grief. 

April  14,  1865!  Memorable  day!  impressed  on  the 
nation's  heart  as  none  other.  Throughout  the  North 
the  loyal  people  had  been  exultant  as  never  before; 
the  power  of  the  Rebellion  had  departed;  the 
legions  of  the  Union  were  pressing^  with  victorious 
tread,  hard  after  the  defeated  and  flying  foe;  the  tid- 
ings of  victory,  borne  on  the  wings  of  the  lightning, 
reached  every  town  and  village  of  the  land ;  the  starry 
banners  were  given  to  the  breeze ;  the  cannon  of  peace 
thundered  echoes  to  the  cannon  of  war ;  that  for  which 
all  had  sighed  seemed  to  approach,  and  the  patriotic 
and  grateful  hailed  each  other  with  glad  voices  and 
glowing  faces.  Who  can  tell  what  a  day  may  bring 
forth!  The  sun  set  on  happiness  and  rejoicing;  the 
mantle  of  night  fell  on  the  land,  and  ere  it  was  lifted 
a  deed  was  consummated  the  intelligence  of  which 
should  shake  the  world.  Again  the  lightning  courier 
sped  on  his  way.  Again  tidings  were  borne  to  every 
town  and  village,  and  from  happy  slumber  the  people 
woke  to  horror  and  mourning,  to  sadness  never  to  be 
forgotten  in  time — never  to  be  told.  The  heads  borne 
so  proudly  yesterday  droop  on  the  breast  to-day;  the 

7 


8  TREFATORY 

springing  footstep  of  yesterday  is  the  funeral  pace 
of  to-day.  Friends  met  in  silence  and  tears.  When 
utterance  was  given,  men  talked  of  God — of  his  provi- 
dence— of  his  wisdom.  The  head  of  the  nation  was 
stricken  and  slain,  and  the  nation  turned  to  him  who 
is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  In  the  centers  of 
commerce  and  finance  there  was  heard  the  voice  of 
supplication.  The  Sabbath  came — never  more  oppor- 
tune— never  more  welcome — and  in  temples  dedicated 
to  Jehovah  the  heart-stricken  gathered  and  waited 
while  the  ministers  of  God  interpreted  their  feelings. 

In  time  to  come,  this  record  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  the  people,  as,  stricken  and  sad,  they  gathered 
in  their  places  of  worship,  will  be  influential  in  bring- 
ing the  darkest  hour  of  the  nation's  life,  with  its  sur- 
passing interest,  within  the  reach  of  the  sympathy  of 
coming  generations  When  the  flowers  have  many 
times  bloomed  and  faded  on  the  grave  of  our  martyred 
President ;  when  the  banner  of  Peace  floats  over  every 
acre  of  the  broad  territory  of  our  glorious  Union ;  when 
the  hearts  that  felt  the  pangs  of  awful  bereavement  are 
still,  men  will  assent  to  the  facts  recorded  by  the  his- 
torian, but  they  cannot  feel  with  the  generation  whose 
bosom  received  the  fiery  darts,  unless  they  come  in 
contact  with  their  feelings. 

This  volume  treasures  up  the  utterances  of  those  who 
were  the  mouth-pieces  of  the  people,  and  thus  conveys 
to  the  readers  of  the  future  a  better  idea  of  the  wonder- 
ful effects  produced  on  the  national  heart  by  the  assas- 
sination of  Abraham  Lincoln  than  can  be  conveyed  in 
any  other  way. 

R.  M.  Whiting. 

Brooklyn,  May,  1865. 


REV.  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 

"And  Moses  went  up  from  the  plains  of  Moab  unto  the  moun- 
tain of  Nebo,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  that  is  over  against  Jericho ; 
and  the  Lord  showed  him  all  the  land  of  Gilead,  unto  Dan, 
and  all  Naphtali,  and  the  land  of  Ephraim,  and  Manasseh, 
and  all  the  land  of  Judah,  unto  the  utmost  sea,  and  the  south, 
and  the  plain  of  the  valley  of  Jericho,  the  city  of  palm  trees, 
unto  Zoar.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  This  is  the  land 
which  I  sware  unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob, 
saying,  I  will  give  it  unto  thy  seed:  I  have  caused  thee  to  see 
it  with  thine  eyes,  but  thou  shalt  not  go  over  thither.  So 
Moses  the  servant  of  the  Lord  died  there  in  the  land  of  Moab, 
according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord." — Deut.  34.  1-5. 

There  is  no  historic  figure  more  noble  than  that  of 
the  Jewish  lawgiver.  After  so  many  thousand  years, 
the  figure  of  Moses  is  not  diminished,  but  stands  up 
against  the  background  of  early  days,  distinct  and 
individual  as  if  he  had  lived  but  yesterday.  There  is 
scarcely  another  event  in  history  more  touching  than 
his  death.  He  had  borne  the  great  burdens  of  states 
for  forty  years,  shaped  the  Jews  to  a  nation,  filled  out 
their  civil  and  religious  polity^  administered  their  laws, 
guided  their  steps,  or  dwelt  with  them  in  all  their 
journeyings  in  the  wilderness;  had  mourned  in  their 
punishment,  kept  step  with  their  march,  and  led  them 
in  wars,  until  the  end  of  their  labors  drew  nigh.  The 
last  stage  was  reached.  Jordan  only  lay  between  them 
and  the  promised  land.    The  promised  land — oh,  what 

9 


10  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

yearnings  had  heaved  his  breast  for  that  divinely 
promised  place!  He  had  dreamed  of  it  by  night,  and 
mused  by  day.  It  was  holy  and  endeared  as  God's 
favored  spot.  It  was  to  be  the  cradle  of  an  illustrious 
history.  All  his  long,  laborious,  and  now  weary  life, 
he  had  aimed  at  this  as  the  consummation  of  every 
desire,  the  reward  of  every  toil  and  pain.  Then  came 
the  word  of  the  Lord  to  him,  "Thou  mayest  not  go  over. 
Get  thee  up  into  the  mountain,  look  upon  it,  and  die." 

From  that  silent  summit,  the  hoary  leader  gazed  to 
the  north,  to  the  south,  to  the  west,  with  hungry  eyes. 
The  dim  outlines  rose  up.  The  hazy  recesses  spoke  of 
quiet  valleys  between  the  hills.  With  eager  longing, 
with  sad  resignation,  he  looked  upon  the  promised 
land.  It  was  now  to  him  a  forbidden  land.  It  was  a 
moment's  anguish.  He  forgot  all  his  personal  wants, 
and  drank  in  the  vision  of  his  people's  home.  His  work 
was  done.  There  lay  God's  promise  fulfilled.  There 
was  the  seat  of  coming  Jerusalem;  there  the  city  of 
Judah's  King ;  the  sphere  of  judges  and  prophets ;  the 
mount  of  sorrow  and  salvation ;  the  nest  whence  were 
to  fly  blessings  innumerable  to  all  mankind.  Joy 
chased  sadness  from  every  feature,  and  the  prophet 
laid  him  down  and  died. 

Again  a  great  leader  of  the  people  has  passed 
through  toil,  sorrow,  battle,  and  war,  and  come  near 
to  the  promised  land  of  peace,  into  which  he  might 
not  pass  over.  Who  shall  recount  our  martyr's  suffer- 
ings for  this  people?  Since  the  November  of  1860,  his 
horizon  has  been  black  with  storms.  By  day  and  by 
night,  he  trod  a  way  of  danger  and  darkness.  On  his 
shoulders  rested  a  government  dearer  to  him  than  his 
own  life.    At  its  integrity  millions  of  men  were  strik- 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  11 

ing  at  home.  Upon  this  government  foreign  eyes  low- 
ered. It  stood  like  a  lone  island  in  a  sea  full  of 
storms;  and  every  tide  and  wave  seemed  eager  to  de- 
vour it.  Upon  thousands  of  hearts  great  sorrows  and 
anxieties  have  rested,  but  not  on  one  such,  and  in  such 
measure,  as  upon  that  simple,  truthful,  noble  soul,  our 
faithful  and  sainted  Lincoln.  Never  rising  to  the  en- 
thusiasm of  more  impassioned  natures  in  hours  of 
hope,  and  never  sinking  with  the  mercurial  in  hours  of 
defeat  to  the  depths  of  despondency,  he  held  on  with 
unmovable  patience  and  fortitude,  putting  caution 
against  hope  that  it  might  not  be  premature,  and  hope 
against  caution  that  it  might  not  yield  to  dread  and 
danger.  He  wrestled  ceaselessly,  through  four  black 
and  dreadful  purgatorial  years,  wherein  God  was 
cleansing  the  sin  of  his  people  as  by  fire. 

At  last,  the  watcher  beheld  the  gray  dawn  for  the 
country.  The  mountains  began  to  give  forth  their 
forms  from  out  the  darkness ;  and  the  East  came  rush- 
ing toward  us  with  arms  full  of  joy  for  all  our  sor- 
rows. Then  it  was  for  him  to  be  glad  exceedingly,  that 
had  sorrowed  immeasurably.  Peace  could  bring  to  no 
other  heart  such  joy,  such  rest,  such  honor,  such  trust, 
such  gratitude.  But  he  looked  upon  it  as  Moses 
looked  upon  the  promised  land.  Then  the  wail  of  a 
nation  proclaimed  that  he  had  gone  from  among  us. 
Not  thine  the  sorrow,  but  ours,  sainted  soul.  Thou 
hast  indeed  entered  the  promised  land,  while  we  are 
yet  on  the  march.  To  us  remains  the  rocking  of  the 
deep,  the  storm  upon  the  land,  days  of  duty  and  nights 
of  watching ;  but  thou  art  sphered  high  above  all  dark- 
ness and  fear,  beyond  all  sorrow  and  weariness.  Rest, 
Oh  weary  heart!    Rejoice  exceedingly,  thou  that  hast 


12  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

enough  suffered !  Thou  hast  beheld  Him  who  invisibly 
led  thee  in  this  great  wilderness.  Thou  standest  among 
the  elect.  Around  thee  are  the  royal  men  that  have 
ennobled  human  life  in  every  age.  Kingly  art  thou, 
with  glory  on  thy  brow  as  a  diadem.  And  joy  is  upon 
thee  for  ever  more.  Over  all  this  land,  over  all  the 
little  cloud  of  years  that  now  from  thine  infinite 
horizon  moves  back  as  a  speck,  thou  art  lifted  up  as 
high  as  the  star  is  above  the  clouds  that  hide  us,  but 
never  reach  it.  In  the  goodly  company  of  Mount  Zion 
thou  shalt  find  that  rest  which  thou  hast  sorrowing 
sought  in  vain;  and  thy  name,  an  everlasting  name  in 
heaven,  shall  flourish  in  fragrance  and  beauty  as  long 
as  men  shall  last  upon  the  earth,  or  hearts  remain  to 
revere  truth,  fidelity,  and  goodness. 

Never  did  two  such  orbs  of  experience  meet  in  one 
hemisphere  as  the  joy  and  the  sorrow  of  the  same 
week  in  this  land.  The  joy  was  as  sudden  as  if  no  man 
had  expected  it,  and  as  entrancing  as  if  it  had  fallen 
a  sphere  from  heaven.  It  rose  up  over  sobriety,  and 
swept  business  from  its  moorings,  and  ran  down 
through  the  land  in  irresistible  course.  Men  embraced 
each  other  in  brotherhood  that  were  strangers  in  the 
flesh.  They  sang,  or  prayed,  or,  deeper  yet,  many  could 
only  think  thanksgiving  and  weep  gladness.  That 
peace  was  sure ;  that  government  was  firmer  than  ever ; 
that  the  land  was  cleansed  of  plague;  that  the  ages 
were  opening  to  our  footsteps,  and  we  were  to  begin  a 
march  of  blessings;  that  blood  was  staunched,  and 
scowling  enmities  were  sinking  like  storms  beneath 
the  horizon ;  that  the  dear  fatherland,  nothing  lost, 
much  gained,  was  to  rise  up  in  unexampled  honor 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth — these  thoughts,  and 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  13 

that  undistingiiishable  throng  of  fancies,  and  hopes, 
and  desires,  and  yearnings,  that  filled  the  soul  with 
tremblings  like  the  heated  air  of  midsummer  days — 
all  these  kindled  up  such  a  surge  of  joy  as  no  words 
may  describe. 

In  one  hour  joy  lay  without  a  pulse,  without  a  gleam, 
or  breath.  A  sorrow  came  that  swept  through  the 
land  as  huge  storms  sweep  through  the  forest  and  field, 
rolling  thunder  along  the  sky,  disheveling  the  flowers, 
daunting  every  singer  in  thicket  or  forest,  and  pouring 
blackness  and  darkness  across  the  land  and  up  the 
mountains.  Did  ever  so  many  hearts,  in  so  brief  a 
time,  touch  two  such  boundless  feelings?  It  was  the 
uttermost  of  joy;  it  was  the  uttermost  of  sorrow — 
noon  and  midnight,  without  a  space  between. 

The  blow  brought  not  a  sharp  pang.  It  was  so  ter- 
rible that  at  first  it  stunned  sensibility.  Citizens 
were  like  men  awakened  at  midnight  by  an  earthquake, 
and  bewildered  to  find  everything  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  trust  wavering  and  falling.  The  very 
earth  was  no  longer  solid.  The  first  feeling  was  the 
least.  Men  waited  to  get  straight  to  feel.  They  wan- 
dered in  the  streets  as  if  groping  after  some  impending 
dread,  or  undeveloped  sorrow,  or  some  one  to  tell  them 
what  ailed  them.  They  met  each  other  as  if  each  would 
ask  the  other,  "Am  I  awake,  or  do  I  dream?"  There 
was  a  piteous  helplessness.  Strong  men  bowed  down 
and  wept.  Other  and  common  griefs  belonged  to  some 
one  in  chief;  this  belonged  to  all.  It  was  each  and 
every  man's.  Every  virtuous  household  in  the  land  felt 
as  if  its  first-born  were  gone.  Men  were  bereaved,  and 
walked  for  days  as  if  a  corpse  lay  unburied  in  their 
dwellings.    There  was  nothing  else  to  think  of.    They 


14  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

could  speak  of  nothing  but  that ;  and  yet,  of  that  they 
could  speak  only  falteringly.  All  business  was  laid 
aside.  Pleasure  forgot  to  smile.  The  city  for  nearly  a 
week  ceased  to  roar.  The  great  Leviathan  lay  down, 
and  was  still.  Even  avarice  stood  still,  and  greed 
was  strangely  moved  to  generous  sympathy  and  uni- 
versal sorrow.  Rear  to  his  name  monuments,  found 
charitable  institutions,  and  write  his  name  above  their 
lintels ;  but  no  monument  will  ever  equal  the  universal, 
spontaneous,  and  sublime  sorrow  that  in  a  moment 
swept  down  lines  and  parties,  and  covered  up  animos- 
ities, and  in  an  hour  brought  a  divided  people  into 
unity  of  grief  and  indivisible  fellowship  of  anguish. 

For  myself,  I  cannot  yet  command  that  quietness  of 
spirit  needed  for  a  just  and  temperate  delineation  of  a 
man  whom  goodness  has  made  great.  Leaving  that, 
if  it  please  God,  to  some  other  occasion,  I  pass  to  some 
considerations,  aside  from  the  martyr  President's  char- 
acter, which  may  be  fit  for  this  hour's  instruction. 

1.  Let  us  not  mourn  that  his  departure  was  so  sud- 
den, nor  fill  our  imagination  with  horror  at  its  method. 
Men,  long  eluding  and  evading  sorrow,  when  at  last 
they  are  overtaken  by  it,  seem  enchanted,  and  seek  to 
make  their  sorrow  sorrowful  to  the  very  uttermost, 
and  to  bring  out  every  drop  of  suffering  which  they 
possibly  can.  This  is  not  Christian,  though  it  may  be 
natural.  When  good  men  pray  for  deliverance  from 
sudden  death,  it  is  only  that  they  may  not  be  plunged 
without  preparation,  all  disrobed,  into  the  presence 
of  their  Judge.  When  one  is  ready  to  depart,  sudden- 
ness of  death  is  a  blessing.  It  is  a  painful  sight  to 
see  a  tree  overthrown  by  a  tornado,  wrenched  from  its 
foundations,  and  broken  down  like  a  weed;  but  it  is 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  15 

yet  more  painful  to  see  a  vast  and  venerable  tree 
lingering  with  vain  strife  against  decay,  which  age 
and  infirmity  have  marked  for  destruction.  The  proc- 
ess by  which  strength  wastes,  and  the  mind  is  ob- 
scured, and  the  tabernacle  is  taken  down,  is  humiliat- 
ing and  painful ;  and  it  is  good  and  grand  when  a  man 
departs  to  his  rest  from  out  of  the  midst  of  duty,  full- 
armed  and  strong,  with  pulse  beating  time.  For  such 
an  one  to  go  suddenly,  if  he  be  prepared  to  go,  is  but 
to  terminate  a  most  noble  life  in  its  most  noble  manner. 
Mark  the  words  of  the  Master : 

"Let  your  loins  be  girded  about,  and  your  lights 
burning;  and  ye  yourselves  like  unto  men  that  wait 
for  their  lord,  when  he  will  return  from  the  wedding; 
that  when  he  cometh  and  knocketh  they  may  open  unto 
him  immediately.  Blessed  are  those  servants  whom 
the  lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  watching." 

Not  they  that  go  in  a  stupor,  but  they  that  go  with 
all  their  powers  about  them,  and  wide-awake,  to  meet 
their  Master,  as  to  a  wedding,  are  blessed.  He  died 
watching.  He  died  with  his  armor  on.  In  the  midst 
of  hours  of  labors,  in  the  very  heart  of  patriotic  con- 
sultations, just  returned  from  camps  and  councils,  he 
was  stricken  down.  No  fever  dried  his  blood.  No  slow 
waste  consumed  him.  All  at  once,  in  full  strength 
and  manhood,  with  his  girdle  tight  about  him,  he  de- 
parted, and  walks  with  God. 

Nor  was  the  manner  of  his  death  more  shocking,  if 
we  divest  it  of  the  malignity  of  the  motives  which 
caused  it.  The  mere  instrument  itself  is  not  one  that 
we  should  shrink  from  contemplating.  Have  not  thou- 
sands of  soldiers  fallen  on  the  field  of  battle  by  the 
bullets  of  the  enemy  ?    Is  being  killed  in  battle  counted 


16  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

to  be  a  dreadful  mode  of  dying?  It  was  as  if  he  had 
died  in  battle.  Do  not  all  soldiers  that  must  fall  ask 
to  depart  in  the  hour  of  battle  and  victory?  He  went 
in  the  hour  of  victory. 

There  has  not  been  a  poor  drummer-boy  in  all  this 
war  that  has  fallen  for  whom  the  great  heart  of  Lin- 
coln would  not  have  bled;  there  has  not  been  one 
private  soldier,  without  note  or  name,  slain  among 
thousands,  and  hid  in  the  pit  among  hundreds,  without 
even  the  memorial  of  a  separate  burial,  for  whom  the 
President  would  not  have  wept.  He  was  a  man  from 
the  common  people  that  never  forgot  his  kind.  And 
now  that  he  who  might  not  bear  the  march,  and  toil, 
and  battles  with  these  humble  citizens  has  been  called 
to  die  by  the  bullet,  as  they  were,  do  you  not  feel  that 
there  was  a  peculiar  fitness  to  his  nature  and  life,  that 
he  should  in  death  be  joined  with  them,  in  a  final  com- 
mon experience,  to  whom  he  had  been  joined  in  all  his 
sympathies 

For  myself,  when  any  event  is  susceptible  of  a  higher 
and  nobler  garnishing,  I  know  not  what  that  disposi- 
tion is  that  should  seek  to  drag  it  down  to  the  depths 
of  gloom,  and  write  it  all  over  with  the  scrawls  of 
horror  or  fear.  I  let  the  light  of  nobler  thoughts  fall 
upon  his  departure,  and  bless  God  that  there  is  some 
argument  of  consolation  in  the  matter  and  manner  of 
his  going,  as  there  was  in  the  matter  and  manner  of  his 
staying, 

2.  This  blow  was  but  the  expiring  rebellion.  As  a 
miniature  gives  all  the  form  and  features  of  its  sub- 
ject, so,  epitomized  in  this  foul  act,  we  find  the  whole 
nature  and  disposition  of  slavery.  It  begins  in  a 
wanton   destruction   of   all   human   rights,   and    in    a 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  17 

desecration  of  all  the  sanctities  of  heart  and  home; 
and  it  is  the  universal  enemy  of  mankind,  and  of  God, 
who  made  man.  It  can  be  maintained  only  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  every  right  and  moral  feeling  in  its  abettors 
and  upholders.  I  deride  the  man  that  points  me  to 
any  man  bred  amid  slavery,  believing  in  it,  and  will- 
ingly practicing  it,  and  tells  me  that  he  is  a  man.  I 
shall  find  saints  in  perdition  sooner  than  I  shall  find 
true  manhood  under  the  influences  of  so  accursed  a 
system  as  this.  It  is  a  two-edged  sword,  cutting  both 
ways,  violently  destroying  manhood  in  the  oppressed, 
and  insidiously  destroying  manhood  in  the  oppressor. 
The  problem  is  solved,  the  demonstration  is  completed, 
in  our  land.  Slavery  wastes  its  victims;  and  it  de- 
stroys the  masters.  It  destroys  public  morality,  and 
the  possibility  of  it.  It  corrupts  manhood  in  its  very 
center  and  elements.  Communities  in  which  it  exists 
are  not  to  be  trusted.  They  are  rotten.  Nor  can  you 
find  timber  grown  in  this  accursed  soil  of  iniquity 
that  is  fit  to  build  our  ship  of  state,  or  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  our  households.  The  patriotism  that  grows 
up  under  this  blight,  when  put  to  proof,  is  selfish  and 
brittle;  and  he  that  leans  upon  it  shall  be  pierced. 
The  honor  that  grows  up  in  the  midst  of  slavery  is 
not  honor,  but  a  bastard  quality  that  usurps  the  place 
of  its  better,  only  to  disgrace  the  name  of  honor. 
And,  as  long  as  there  is  conscience,  or  reason,  or 
Christianity,  the  honor  that  slavery  begets  will  be  a 
bye-word  and  a  hissing.  The  whole  moral  nature  of 
men  reared  to  familiarity  and  connivance  with  slavery 
is  death-smitten.  The  needless  rebellion ;  the  treachery 
of  its  leaders  to  oaths  and  solemn  trusts;  their  viola- 
tion of  the  commonest  principles  of  fidelity,  sitting 


18  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

in  senates,  in  councils,  in  places  of  public  confidence, 
only  to  betray  and  to  destroy;  the  long,  general,  and 
unparalleled  cruelty  to  prisoners,  without  provocation, 
and  utterly  without  excuse :  the  unreasoning  malignity 
and  fierceness — these  all  mark  the  symptoms  of  that 
disease  of  slavery  which  is  a  deadly  poison  to  soul  and 
body. 

1.  I  do  not  say  that  there  are  not  single  natures, 
here  and  there,  scattered  through  the  vast  wilderness 
which  is  covered  with  his  poisonous  vine,  who  escape 
the  poison.  There  are,  but  they  are  not  to  be  found 
among  the  men  that  believe  in  it,  and  that  have  been 
molded  by  it.  They  are  the  exceptions.  Slavery  is 
itself  barbarity.  That  nation  which  cherishes  it  is 
barbarous ;  and  no  outward  tinsel  or  glitter  can  redeem 
it  from  the  charge  of  barbarism.  And  it  was  fit  that 
its  expiring  blow  should  be  such  as  to  take  away  from 
men  the  last  forbearance,  the  last  pity,  and  fire  the 
soul  with  an  invincible  determination  that  the  breed- 
ing ground  of  such  mischiefs  and  monsters  shall  be 
utterly  and  forever  destroyed. 

2.  We  needed  not  that  he  should  put  on  paper  that 
he  believed  in  slavery,  who,  with  treason,  with  murder, 
with  cruelty  infernal,  hovered  around  that  majestic 
man  to  destroy  his  life.  He  was  himself  but  tlie  long 
sting  with  which  slavery  struck  at  liberty;  and  he 
carried  the  poison  that  belonged  to  slavery.  And  as 
long  as  this  nation  lasts,  it  will  never  be  forgotten  that 
we  have  had  one  martyred  President — never!  Never, 
while  time  lasts,  while  heaven  lasts,  while  hell  rocks 
and  groans,  will  it  be  forgotten  that  slavery,  by  its 
minions,  slew  him,  and,  in  slaying  him,  made  manifest 
its  whole  nature  and  tendency. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  19 

3.  This  blow  was  aimed  at  the  life  of  the  Goverijment 
and  of  the  nation.  Lincoln  was  slain ;  America  was 
meant.  The  man  was  cast  down ;  the  Government  was 
smitten  at.  The  President  was  killed ;  it  was  national 
life,  breathing  freedom,  and  meaning  beneficence,  that 
was  sought.  He,  the  man  of  Illinois,  the  private  man, 
divested  of  robes  and  the  insignia  of  authority,  repre- 
senting nothing  but  his  personal  self,  might  have  been 
hated ;  but  it  was  not  that  that  ever  would  have  called 
forth  the  murderer's  blow.  It  was  because  he  stood 
in  the  place  of  government,  representing  government, 
and  a  government  that  represented  right  and  liberty, 
that  he  was  singled  out. 

This,  then,  is  a  crime  against  universal  government. 
It  is  not  a  blow  at  the  foundations  of  our  government, 
more  than  at  the  foundations  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, of  the  French  Government,  of  every  compacted 
and  well-organized  government.  It  was  a  crime  against 
mankind.  The  whole  world  will  repudiate  and  stig- 
matize it  as  a  deed  without  a  shade  of  redeeming  light. 
For  this  was  not  the  oppressed,  goaded  to  extremity, 
turning  on  his  oppressor.  Not  the  shadow  of  a  cloud, 
even,  has  rested  on  the  South,  of  wrong;  and  they 
knew  it  right  well. 

In  a  council  held  in  the  City  of  Charleston,  just 
preceding  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter,  two  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  to  go  to  Washington;  one  on 
the  part  of  the  army  from  Fort  Sumter  and  one  on 
the  part  of  the  Confederates.  The  lieutenant  that 
was  designated  to  go  for  us  said  it  seemed  to  him  that 
it  would  be  of  little  use  for  him  to  go,  as  his  opinion 
was  immovably  fixed  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  Gov- 
ernment in  whose  service  he  was  employed.    Then  Gov. 


20  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

Pickens  took  him  aside,  detaining,  for  an  hour  and  a 
half,  the  railroad  train  that  was  to  convey  them  on 
their  errand.  He  opened  to  him  the  whole  plan  and 
secret  of  the  Southern  conspiracy,  and  said  to  him,  dis- 
tinctly and  repeatedly  (for  it  was  needful,  he  said,  to 
lay  aside  disguises),  that  the  South  had  never  been 
wronged,  and  that  all  their  pretences  of  grievance  in 
the  matter  of  tariffs,  or  anything  else,  were  invalid. 
"But,"  said  he,  "we  must  carry  the  people  with  us; 
and  we  allege  these  things,  as  all  statesmen  do  many 
things  that  they  do  not  believe,  because  they  are  the 
only  instruments  by  which  the  people  can  be  managed." 
He  then  and  there  declared  that  the  two  sections  of 
country  were  so  antagonistic  in  ideas  and  policies  that 
they  could  not  live  together,  that  it  was  foreordained 
that  Northern  and  Southern  men  must  keep  apart  on 
account  of  differences  in  ideas  and  policies,  and  that 
all  the  pretences  of  the  South  about  wrongs  suffered 
were  but  pretences,  as  they  very  well  knew.  This  is 
testimony  which  was  given  by  one  of  the  leaders  in 
the  rebellion,  and  which  will,  probably,  ere  long,  be 
given  under  hand  and  seal  to  the  public.  So  the  South 
has  never  had  wrong  visited  upon  it  except  by  that 
which  was  inherent  in  it. 

This  was  notj  then,  the  avenging  hand  of  one  goaded 
by  tyranny.  It  was  not  a  despot  turned  on  by  his 
victim.  It  was  the  venomous  hatred  of  liberty  wielded 
by  an  avowed  advocate  of  slavery.  And,  though  there 
may  have  been  cases  of  murder  in  which  there  were 
shades  of  palliation,  yet  this  murder  was  without  prov- 
ocation, without  temptation,  without  reason,  sprung 
from  the  fury  of  a  heart  cankered  to  all  that  was  just 
and  good,  corrupted  by  all  that  was  wicked  and  foul. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  21 

4.  The  blow  has  signally  failed.  The  cause  is  not 
stricken;  it  is  strengthened.  This  nation  has  dis- 
solved— but  in  tears  only.  It  stands  four-square,  more 
solid,  to-day,  than  any  pyramid  in  Egypt.  This  peo- 
ple are  neither  wasted,  nor  daunted,  nor  disordered. 
Men  hate  slavery  and  love  liberty  with  stronger  hate 
and  love  to-day  than  ever  before.  The  government  is 
not  weakened,  it  is  made  stronger.  How  naturally 
and  easily  were  the  ranks  closed!  Another  stepped 
forward,  in  the  hour  that  the  one  fell,  to  take  his 
place  and  his  mantle;  and  I  avow  my  belief  that  he 
will  be  found  a  man  true  to  every  instinct  of  liberty; 
true  to  the  whole  trust  that  is  reposed  in  him ;  vigilant 
of  the  Constitution;  careful  of  the  laws;  wise  for 
liberty^  in  that  he  himself,  through  his  life,  has  known 
what  it  was  to  suffer  from  the  stings  of  slavery,  and 
to  prize  liberty  from  bitter  personal  experiences. 
[Applause.] 

Where  could  the  head  of  government  in  any  mon- 
archy be  smitten  down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin, 
and  the  funds  not  quiver  nor  fall  one  half  of  one  per 
cent?  After  a  long  period  of  national  disturbance, 
after  four  years  of  drastic  war,  after  tremendous  drafts 
on  the  resources  of  the  country,  in  the  height  and  top 
of  our  burdens,  the  heart  of  this  people  is  such  that 
now,  when  the  head  of  government  is  stricken  down, 
the  public  funds  do  not  waver,  but  stand  as  the 
granite  ribs  in  our  mountains. 

Republican  institutions  have  been  vindicated  in  this 
experience  as  they  never  were  before;  and  the  whole 
history  of  the  last  four  years,  rounded  up  by  this  cruel 
stroke,  seems,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  have  been 
clothed,  now,  with  an  illustration,  with  a  sympathy, 


22  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

with  an  aptness,  and  with  a  significance,  such  as  we 
never  could  have  expected  nor  imagined.  God,  I  think, 
has  said,  by  the  voice  of  this  event,  to  all  nations  of 
the  earth,  "Republican  liberty,  based  upon  true  Chris- 
tianity, is  firm  as  the  foundation  of  the  globe." 
[Applause.] 

5.  Even  he  who  now  sleeps  has,  by  this  event,  been 
clothed  with  new  influence.  Dead,  he  speaks  to  men 
who  now  willingly  hear  what  before  they  refused  to 
listen  to.  Now  his  simple  and  weighty  words  will  be 
gathered  like  those  of  Washington,  and  your  children, 
and  your  children's  children,  shall  be  taught  to  ponder 
the  simplicity  and  deep  wisdom  of  utterances  which, 
in  their  time,  passed,  in  party  heat,  as  idle  words. 
Men  will  receive  a  new  impulse  of  patriotism  for  his 
sake,  and  will  guard  with  zeal  the  whole  country  which 
he  loved  so  well.  I  swear  you,  on  the  altar  of  his 
memory,  to  be  more  faithful  to  the  country  for  which 
he  has  perished.  [Applause.]  They  will,  as  they 
follow  his  hearse,  swear  a  new  hatred  to  that  slavery 
against  which  he  warred,  and  which,  in  vanquishing 
him,  has  made  him  a  martyr  and  a  conqueror.  I  swear 
you,  by  the  memory  of  this  martyr,  to  hate  slavery 
with  an  unappeasable  hatred.  [Applause.]  They  will 
admire  and  imitate  the  firmness  of  this  man,  his  in- 
flexible conscience  for  the  right ;  and  jet  his  gentleness, 
as  tender  as  a  woman's,  his  moderation  of  spirit, 
which,  not  all  the  heat  of  party  could  inflame,  nor  all 
the  jars  and  disturbances  of  this  country  shake  out 
of  its  place.  I  swear  you  to  an  emulation  of  his  jus- 
tice, his  moderation,  and  his  mercy. 

You  I  can  comfort;  but  how  can  I  speak  to  that 
twilight  million  to  whom  his  name  was  as  the  name 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER  23 

of  an  angel  of  God?  There  will  be  wailing  in  places 
which  no  minister  shall  be  able  to  reach.  When,  in 
hovel  and  in  cot,  in  wood  and  in  wilderness,  in  the 
field  throughout  the  South,  the  dusky  children,  who 
looked  upon  him  as  that  Moses  whom  God  sent  be- 
fore them  to  lead  them  out  of  the  laud  of  bondage, 
learn  that  he  has  fallen,  who  shall  comfort  them?  O, 
thou  Shepherd  of  Israel,  that  didst  comfort  thy  people 
of  old,  to  thy  care  we  commit  the  helpless,  the  long- 
wronged,  and  grieved. 

And  now  the  martyr  is  moving  in  triumphal  march, 
mightier  than  when  alive.  The  nation  rises  up  at 
every  stage  of  his  coming.  Cities  and  States  are  his 
pallbearers,  and  the  cannon  beats  the  hours  with 
solemn  progression.  Dead,  dead,  dead^  he  yet  speaketh ! 
Is  Washington  dead?  Is  Hampden  dead?  Is  David 
dead?  Is  any  man  that  ever  was  fit  to  live  dead? 
Disenthralled  of  flesh,  and  risen  in  the  unobstructed 
sphere  where  passion  never  comes,  he  begins  his  illimi- 
table work.  His  life  now  is  grafted  upon  the  infinite, 
and  will  be  fruitful  as  no  earthly  life  can  be.  Pass 
on,  thou  that  hast  overcome !  Your  sorrows,  O  people, 
are  his  peace!  Your  bells  and  bands  and  muffled 
drums,  sound  triumph  in  his  ear.  Wail  and  weep 
here ;  God  makes  it  echo  joy  and  triumph  there.  Pass 
on! 

Four  years  ago,  O,  Illinois,  we  took  from  your  midst 
an  untried  man,  and  from  among  the  people.  We 
return  him  to  you  a  mighty  conqueror.  Not  thine  any 
more,  but  the  nation's ;  not  ours,  but  the  world's.  Give 
him  place,  O,  ye  prairies!  In  the  midst  of  this  great 
continent  his  dust  shall  rest,  a  sacred  treasure  to 
myriads  who  shall  pilgrim  to  that  shrine  to  kindle 


24  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


anew  their  zeal  and  patriotism.  Ye  winds  that  move 
over  the  mighty  places  of  the  West,  chant  his  requiem ! 
Ye  people,  behold  a  martyr  whose  blood,  as  so  many 
articulate  words,  pleads  for  fidelity,  for  law,  for 
liberty ! 


II 

EEV.  HENRY  W.  BELLOWS,  D.D. 

"Sorrow  hath  filled  your  heart.  Nevertheless,  I  will  tell  you 
the  truth;  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away:  for  if  I  go 
not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I  de- 
part, I  will  send  him  unto  you." — John  16.  6,  7. 

So  Jesus,  in  view  of  his  own  approaching  death, 
comforted  his  disciples !  He  was  to  leave  them,  robbed 
by  violence  of  their  accustomed  leader;  he  whom  they 
had  believed  should  redeem  Israel,  snatched  wickedly 
and  ignominiously  from  their  side;  all  their  hopes  of 
prosperity  and  power  in  this  world  utterly  destroyed. 
He  was  to  leave  them  a  dismayed  and  broken-hearted 
band,  terror-stricken  and  scattered  abroad,  the  enemies 
of  their  beloved  Lord  triumphant  over  him ;  his  words 
and  teachings  as  yet  involved  in  obscurity  and  mystery ; 
their  souls  ungrown  in  his  likeness ;  the  nature  of  their 
Master's  errand  in  this  world  not  yet  understood — 
nay,  misunderstood  almost  as  sadly  by  his  disciples 
as  by  the  Jews  who  murdered  him.  Knowing,  as  our 
Saviour  did,  just  how  they  were  to  be  affected  by  his 
death,  how  utterly  appalled  and  bewildered,  he  still 
tells  them,  "It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away: 
for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  [who  should  abide 
with  them  forever]  will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I 
depart,  I  will  send  him  unto  you." 

We   understand   now,   looking   back   nineteen   cen- 

25 


26  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

turies,  how  truly  Jesus  spake.  We  see  that  without 
that  death  there  could  not  have  been  that  resurrection 
from  the  dead;  that  Jesus  Christ  was  revealed  to  his 
disciples  as  a  spiritual  prince  and  deliverer,  as  Lord 
over  the  grave  and  King  of  saints  immortal,  in  the 
defeat  of  all  ambitions  having  their  seat  in  this  world ; 
that  he  died  to  prove  that  death  was  not  the  end  of 
being,  but  the  real  beginning  of  a  true  life ;  rose  again 
to  show  that  if  it  was  "appointed  unto  all  men  once 
to  die,"  it  was  not  because  fate  and  matter  were 
stronger  than  spirit,  or  because  death  was  inevitable, 
but  simply  because  thus  man  broke  out  of  fleshly  gar- 
ments into  a  higher  mode  of  existence.  We  see  now 
that  he  finally  left  his  disciples,  and  ascended  into 
heaven,  to  show  them  that  absence  in  the  flesh  is  often 
only  a  greater  nearness  of  the  spirit — that  his  power 
to  enlighten,  guide,  animate,  and  bless  them — yes,  to 
comfort  and  cheer  them — was  greater  as  an  unseen 
Saviour,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  than  as  a 
present  incarnate  Master,  in  whose  bosom  John  could 
lie,  and  into  whose  side  and  into  the  prints  of  the 
nails  Thomas  could  thrust  his  doubting  fingers.  And 
what  he  promised  he  fully  performed !  The  cruci- 
fixion which  darkened  the  heavens  with  its  gloom 
gave  way  to  the  resurrection,  which  not  only  broke 
Christ's  own  tomb  and  the  tombs  of  many  saints,  but 
slew  the  angel  of  death  himself,  leaving  him  only  the 
mock  dignity  of  a  name  without  reality,  which  let  into 
the  apostles'  minds,  and  through  them  into  the  world, 
their  first  conception  of  the  utter  spirituality  of 
Christ's  kingdom;  converted  them  from  Jews  into 
Christians;  indeed,  began  the  new  era,  and  from  ordi- 
nary fishermen  created  those  glorious,  sublime  apostles, 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  27 

whose  teachings,  character,  deeds,  and  sufferings  built 
up  the  Church  on  the  chief  corner  stone,  and  estab- 
lished our  holy  religion  in  the  world. 

And  it  was  not  only  expedient  for  Jesus  Christ  to 
die,  that  he  might  rise  again  clothed  with  his  conquest 
over  the  grave,  his  victory  over  the  doubts  and  fears 
of  his  disciples,  and  the  bold  predictions  and  short 
triumph  of  his  murderers — but  expedient  for  him,  in 
his  ascension,  to  go  away  utterly  from  all  bodily 
presence  with  his  disciples  and  followers,  drawing 
their  thoughts  and  affections  after  him  into  the  un- 
seen world.  Thus  alone  could  Jesus  keep  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  his  disciples  wide  open  and  stretched 
to  the  full  compass  of  his  spiritual  religion — keep  them 
from  closing  in  again  with  their  narrow  earthly  horizon 
— keep  them  from  falling  back  into  schemes  of  worldly 
hope — from  substituting  fondness  for  and  devotion  to 
his  visible  person,  for  that  elevated,  spiritual  consecra- 
tion to  his  spirit  and  his  commandments,  on  which  their 
future  high  and  holy  influence  depended.  Jesus  went 
away,  that  the  Christ  might  return  to  be  the  anointing 
and  illumination  and  Comforter  of  his  disciples.  His 
nearest  friends  never  knew  him  till  he  had  wholly 
gone  away.  They  never  loved  him  till  he  was  beyond 
their  embraces.  John,  lying  in  his  bosom,  was  not  as 
near  his  heart  as  thousands  of  his  humblest  disciples 
have  been,  who  have  had  Christ  formed  within  them 
by  communion  with  his  Holy  Spirit.  That  g'oing  away 
created  and  inspired  the  apostles,  who,  under  God  and 
Christ,  created  and  inspired  the  Church.  Jesus  shook 
off  his  Judaic,  his  local,  and  his  merely  human  char- 
acter, and  became  the  universal  Son  of  man,  the  native 
of  all  countries,  the  contemporary  of  all  times  and 


28         LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

eras,  the  ubiquitous  companion  and  common  Saviour. 
His  death,  his  resurrection,  his  ascension,  rehearsed 
and  sj'mbolized  the  common  and  sublime  destiny  of 
humanity.  Man  is  mortal,  and  must  die;  man  is  im- 
mortal, and  must  rise  again ;  man  is  a  spirit,  and  must 
quit  the  limitations  of  earth  and  sense,  to  dwell  with 
God  in  a  world  of  spiritual  realities. 

Thus  Jesus  honored  the  flesh  he  took  upon  himself, 
and  the  world  he  lived  in;  honored  by  accepting  the 
universal  lot  of  life  and  death.  But  at  the  same  time 
that  he  honored  our  visible  conditions  and  circum- 
stances, he  discrowned  them  of  their  assumed  sov- 
ereignty over  us  by  triumphing  over  the  grave,  and  re- 
turning in  the  flesh  to  life  and  to  its  duties  and  neces- 
sities, and  then,  finally,  he  lifted  man  above  not  only 
the  grave,  but  above  time  and  sense,  matter  and  affairs, 
by  ascending  into  the  unseen  world,  as  into  a  more 
real  state  of  existence,  and  promising  from  that  in- 
visible seat  to  conduct  the  triumph  of  his  Church,  to 
visit  and  cheer  the  hearts  of  his  disciples,  and  to  be 
with  them  until  the  end  of  the  world,  when  his  king- 
dom should  come  fully,  and  God's  will  be  done  in 
earth  as  in  heaven.  Then  he  would  deliver  the  king- 
dom up  unto  the  Father,  that  God  might  be  all  in  all. 

And  has  it  not,  indeed,  been  so?  The  Comforter  has 
come !  He  came  to  the  apostles,  and  wiped  away  their 
doubts  and  fears:  their  personal  ambitions,  their 
Jewish  prejudices,  their  self-seeking  and  self-saving 
thoughts!  For  tongues  that  spake  only  the  dialects 
of  their  local  experience,  it  gives  them  tongues  of  fire, 
burning  with  an  eloquence  intelligible  in  all  lands  and 
all  ages. 

And  what  but  a  Holy  Spirit,  a  descending  Saviour, 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  29 

taking  of  the  things  of  God  and  showing  them  unto 
men,  has  been  the  strength  and  salvation  of  human 
hearts  from  that  hour  to  this?  How  has  the  Master's 
influence  grown,  how  mighty  his  consolations,  how 
irresistible  the  inspirations  of  his  grace  and  truth! 
Buried  in  catacombs,  overwhelmed  with  the  wrath  of 
mighty  kings  and  princes,  resisted  and  withstood  by 
all  the  pride  of  philosophers  and  sages,  protested  by 
the  vulgar  senses  and  denied  by  the  coarse  appetites  of 
man — the  holy  faith,  planted  in  Christ's  broken  tomb, 
has  withstood  the  rigors  of  every  climate,  outlived  the 
swords  and  axes  that  have  turned  their  edge  against 
it,  the  hoofs  of  horses  and  the  iron  heels  of  mailed 
hosts  that  have  trampled  it  in  the  dust,  been  nourished 
by  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  that  died  for  its  glory  and 
defense,  and  has  overrun  the  very  cities  that  slew  its 
apostles,  crossed  oceans  unknown  to  the  empires  that 
defiled  or  despised  it,  become  the  glory  and  hope  of  a 
civilization,  known  only  by  its  name!  The  Comforter 
indeed!  What  visible  bodily  master  could  visit  every 
day  the  millions  of  homes  that  the  ascended  Christ 
now  takes  in  the  daily  circuit  of  his  divine  walk?  And 
what  lips  could  articulate  the  unspeakable  wisdom  he 
distills  into  lowly  hearts  that  feel,  but  can  never  tell, 
the  joy  and  trust  and  truth  he  imparts?  Ah!  the  best 
part  of  the  gospel  is  that  Word  which  cannot  be  ut- 
tered, but  which  comes  and  abides  with  the  believing 
soul — that  tender  experience  of  a  life  hidden  with 
Christ  in  God,  which  it  is  no  more  given  to  reveal  in 
language,  than  it  is  given  to  describe  the  things  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him!  Yes!  on 
this  holy  Easter  morning!  when  the  mild  spring  air  is 
full  of  God's  quickening  love,  and  the  breeze  goes  whis- 


30         LINCOLN  MEMOKIAL  ADDEESSES 

pering  in  the  ear  of  every  dry  root  and  quivering  stalk, 
the  promise  of  a  new  life,  a  glorious  resurrection,  is 
there  not  a  winged  but  viewless  Comforter,  noiselessly 
fluttering  in  at  the  windows  of  all  Christian  homes, 
and  gently  stirring  in  the  hearts  that  have  inherited 
their  father's  faith,  the  blessed  assurance  of  God's 
eternal  love ;  of  the  soul's  superiority  to  time  and  sense, 
to  death  and  hell;  of  the  supporting  presence  of  a 
Saviour's  love  and  care,  with  all  the  gracious  invita- 
tions, encouragements,  and  comforts  that  breathe  from 
the  Gospels,  vital  with  the  spirit  and  life,  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Him  whose  history  they  record? 
Can  we  read  the  New  Testament  to-day  and  feel  that  it 
is  only  common  print  that  we  peruse?  Are  Christ's 
living  words  only  remembered  phrases?  or  do  we  seem 
to  hear  them  spoken  from  heaven  by  Him  who  is  the 
Word  of  God,  and  with  a  music  and  a  meaning  that  all 
**the  harpers,  harping  with  their  harps,"  could  not 
intensify  or  sweeten,  making  our  souls  bum  within  us 
as  when  of  old  he  walked  and  talked  by  the  way,  at 
Emmaus,  with  his  disciples? 

It  is,  dear  brethren,  the  faith,  and  hope,  and  trust  of 
those  inspired  by  the  Comforter  Jesus  sent,  that  en- 
ables us  to  confront  without  utter  dismay  the  appalling 
visitation  that  has  just  fallen  with  such  terrible  sud- 
denness upon  the  country  and  the  national  cause! 
With  a  heart  almost  withered,  a  brain  almost  paralyzed 
by  the  shock,  I  turn  in  vain  for  consolation  to  any  other 
than  the  Comforter.  Just  as  we  were  wreathing  the 
laurels  of  our  victories  and  the  chaplets  of  our  peace 
in  with  the  Easter  flowers  that  bloom  around  the  empty 
sepulcher  of  our  ascended  Lord;  just  as  we  were  pre- 
paring the  fit  and  luminous  celebration  of  a  nation's 


HENEY  W.  BELLOWS  31 

joy  in  its  providential  deliverance  from  a  most  bloody 
and  costly  war,  and  feeling  that  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ  was  freshly  and  gloriously  interpreted  by  the 
rising  of  our  smitten,  humiliated,  reviled,  and  crucified 
country,  buried  in  the  distrust  of  foreign  nations  and 
the  intentions  of  rebel  hearts;  a  country  rising  from 
the  tomb,  where  she  had  left  as  discarded  grave-clothes, 
the  accursed  vestments  of  slavery  that  had  poisoned, 
enfeebled,  and  nearly  destroyed  her  first  life ;  a  country 
rising  to  a  higher,  purer  existence,  under  the  guidance 
of  a  chief  whom  it  fondly  thought  sent  from  above  to 
lead  it  cautiously,  wisely,  conscientiously,  successfully, 
like  another  Moses,  through  the  Red  Sea  into  its 
promised  land;  just  then,  at  the  proud  moment  when 
the  nation,  its  four  years  of  conflict  fully  rounded,  had 
announced  its  ability  to  diminish  its  armaments,  with- 
draw its  call  for  troops  and  its  restrictions  on  inter- 
course, comes  as  out  of  a  clear  heaven  the  thunderbolt 
that  pierces  the  tender,  sacred  head  that  we  were  ready 
to  crown  with  a  nation's  blessings,  while  trusting  to 
its  wisdom  and  gentleness,  its  faithfulness  and  pru- 
dence, the  closing  up  of  the  country's  wounds,  and  the 
appareling  of  the  nation,  her  armor  laid  aside,  in  the 
white  robes  of  peace. 

Our  beloved  President,  who  had  enshrined  himself 
not  merely  in  the  confidence,  the  respect,  and  the  grati- 
tude of  the  people,  but  in  their  very  hearts,  as  their 
true  friend,  adviser,  representative,  and  brother ;  whom 
the  nation  loved  as  much  as  it  revered ;  who  had  soothed 
our  angry  impatience  in  this  fearful  struggle  with  his 
gentle  moderation  and  passionless  calm ;  who  had  been 
the  head  of  the  nation,  and  not  the  chief  of  a  successful 
party;  and  had  treated  our  enemies  like  rebellious  chil- 


32  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

dren,  and  not  .as  foreign  foes,  providing  even  in  their 
chastisement  for  mercy  and  penitent  restoration;  our 
prudent,  firm,  humble,  reverential,  God-fearing  Presi- 
dent is  dead ! 

The  assassin's  hand  has  reached  him  who  was  belted 
round  with  a  nation's  devotion,  and  whom  a  million 
soldiers  have  hitherto  encircled  with  their  watchful 
guardianship.  Panoplied  in  honesty  and  simplicity  of 
purpose,  too  universally  well-disposed  to  believe  in 
danger  to  himself,  free  from  ambition,  self-consequence 
and  show,  he  has  always  shown  a  fearless  heart,  gone 
often  to  the  front,  made  himself  accessible  to  all  at 
home,  trusted  the  people,  joined  their  amusements,  an- 
swered their  summons,  and  laid  himself  open  every  day 
to  the  malice  and  murderous  chances  of  domestic  foes. 
It  seemed  as  if  no  man  could  raise  his  hand  against 
that  meek  ruler,  or  confront  with  purpose  of  injury 
that  loving  eye,  that  sorrow-stricken  face,  ploughed 
with  care,  and  watchings,  and  tears.  So  marked  with 
upright,  patient  purposes  of  good  to  all,  of  justice  and 
mercy,  of  sagacious  roundabout  wisdom,  was  his 
homely,  paternal  countenance,  that  I  do  not  wonder 
that  his  murderer  killed  him  from  behind,  and  could 
not  face  the  look  that  would  have  disarmed  him  in 
the  very  moment  of  his  criminal  madness. 

But  he  has  gone!  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States  during  the  most  difficult,  trying,  and 
important  period  of  the  nation's  history;  safe  con- 
ductor of  our  policy  through  a  crisis  such  as  no  other 
people  ever  had  to  pass;  successful  summoner  of  a 
million  and  a  quarter  of  American  citizens  to  arms  in 
behalf  of  their  flag  and  their  Union;  author  of  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation;  the  people's  President; 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  33 

the  heir  of  Washington's  place  at  the  hearths  and 
altars  of  the  land;  the  legitimate  idol  of  the  negro. 
race;  the  perfect  type  of  American  democracy;  the 
astute  adviser  of  our  generals  in  the  field;  the  careful 
student  of  their  strategy,  and  their  personal  friend 
and  inspirer;  the  head  of  his  Cabinet,  prevailing,  by 
the  passionless  simplicity  of  his  integrity  and  unselfish 
patriotism,  over  the  larger  experience,  the  more  bril- 
liant gifts,  the  more  vigorous  purposes  of  his  constitu- 
tional advisers;  a  President,  indeed;  not  the  mere 
figure-head  of  the  state,  but  its  helmsman  and  pilot; 
shrinking  from  no  perplexity,  magnanimous  in  self- 
accusation  and  in  readiness  to  gather  into  his  own 
bosom  the  spears  of  rebuke  aimed  at  his  counselors  and 
agents;  the  tireless  servant  of  his  place — no  duty  so 
small  and  wearisome  that  he  shirked  it,  none  so  great 
and  persistent  that  he  sought  to  fling  it  upon  others; 
the  man  who,  fully  tried  (not  without  fitful  vacilla- 
tions of  public  sentiment,  which  visited  on  him  the 
diflSculties  of  the  times  and  the  situation),  tried 
through  four  years  in  which  every  quality  of  the  man, 
the  statesman,  the  Christian,  was  tested;  in  the  face 
of  a  jeering  enemy,  and  foreign  sneers,  and  domestic 
ribaldry,  elected  again  by  overwhelming  majorities  to 
be  their  chief  and  their  representative  during  another 
term  of  oflBce,  in  which  it  was  supposed  even  superior 
qualities  and  services  would  be  required  to  meet  the 
nation's  exigencies — this  tried,  this  honored,  this 
beloved  head  of  the  Government  and  the  country  is, 
alas !  suddenly  snatched  from  us  at  the  moment  of  our 
greatest  need  and  our  greatest  joy,  and  taken  up  higher 
to  his  heavenly  reward !  Thank  God,  he  knew  how  the 
nation  loved  and  reverenced  him ;  his  reelection  was  the 


34  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

most  solid  proof  of  that  which  could  possibly  have  been 
given.  He  had  tasted,  too,  the  negro's  pious  gratitude, 
and  tearful,  glorious  affection!  He  had  lived  to  give 
the  order  for  ceasing  our  preparations  for  war — an 
act  almost  equivalent  to  proclaiming  peace!  He  had 
seen  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  was  satisfied.  He 
had  done  the  work  of  a  life  in  his  first  term  of  service ; 
almost  every  day  of  his  second  term,  not  forty  days  old, 
had  been  marked  with  victories,  until  no  good  news 
could  have  been  received  that  would  have  much  swelled 
his  joy  and  honest  pride!  And  now,  as  the  typical 
figure,  the  historic  name  of  this  great  era,  its  glory 
rounded  and  full,  the  Almighty  Wisdom  has  seen  fit  to 
close  the  record,  and  isolate  the  special  work  he  has 
done,  lest  by  any  possible  mischance  the  flawless  beauty 
and  symmetric  oneness  of  the  President's  career  should 
be  impaired,  its  unique  glory  compromised  by  after 
issues,  or  its  special  luster  mixed  with  rays  of  another 
color,  though  it  might  be  of  an  equal  splendor ! 

The  Past,  at  least,  is  secure !  Nothing  can  touch  him 
further.  Standing  the  central  form  in  the  field  of  this 
mighty,  providential  struggle,  he  fitly  represents  the 
purity,  calmness,  justice,  and  mercy  of  the  loyal  Ameri- 
can people;  their  unconquered  resolution  to  conquer 
secession  and  break  slavery  in  pieces;  their  sober,  solid 
sense;  their  religious  confidence  that  God  is  on  their 
side,  and  their  cause  the  cause  of  universal  humanity! 
Let  us  be  reconciled  to  the  appointment  which  has 
released  that  weighty  and  patient  head,  that  pathetic, 
tender  heart,  that  worn  and  weary  hand  from  the  per- 
plexing details  of  national  rehabilitation.  Let  the 
lesser,  meaner  cares  and  anxieties  of  the  country  fall 
on  other  shoulders  than  those  which  have  borne  up 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  35 

the  pillars  of  the  nation  when  shaken  with,  the  earth- 
quake. 

And  seeing  it  is  God  who  has  afflicted  us,  who  doeth 
all  things  well,  let  us  believe  that  it  is  expedient  for 
us  that  our  beloved  chief  should  go  away.  He  goes,  to 
consecrate  his  work  by  flinging  his  life  as  well  as  his 
labors  and  his  conscience  into  the  nation's  cause.  He 
that  has  cheered  so  many  on  to  bloody  sacrifice,  found 
unexpected,  surprising  opportunity,  to  give  also  his 
own  blood!  He  died,  as  truly  as  any  warrior  dies  on 
the  battle-field,  in  the  nation's  service,  and  shed  his 
blood  for  her  sake !  It  was  the  nation  that  was  aimed 
at  by  the  bullet  that  stilled  his  aching  brain.  As  the 
representative  of  a  cause,  the  type  of  a  victory,  he  was 
singled  out  and  slain!  His  life  and  career  now  have 
the  martyr's  palm  added  to  the  statesman's,  philan- 
thropist's, and  patriot's  crown.  His  place  is  sure  in 
the  innermost  shrine  of  his  country's  gratitude.  His 
name  will  match  with  Washington's,  and  go  with  it 
laden  with  blessings  down  to  the  remotest  posterity. 

And  may  we  not  have  needed  this  loss,  in  which  we 
gain  a  national  martyr  and  an  ascended  leader,  to  in- 
spire us  from  his  heavenly  seat,  where  with  the  other 
father  of  his  country  he  sits  in  glory,  while  they  send 
united  benedictions  and  lessons  of  comfort  and  of  guid- 
ance down  upon  their  common  children — may  we  not 
have  needed  this  loss  to  sober  our  hearts  in  the  midst 
of  our  national  triumph,  lest  in  the  excess  of  our  joy 
and  our  pride  we  should  overstep  the  bounds  of  that 
prudence  and  the  limits  of  that  earnest  seriousness 
which  our  affairs  demand  ?  We  have  stern  and  solemn 
duties  yet  to  perform,  great  and  anxious  tasks  to 
achieve.    We  must  not,  after  ploughing  the  fields  with 


36         LINCOLN  MEMOKIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  burning  share  of  civil  war,  and  fertilizing  them 
with  the  blood  and  bones  of  a  half  million  noble  youth, 
lose  the  great  harvest  by  wasting  the  short  season  of 
ingathering  in  festive  joy  at  its  promise  and  its  full- 
ness! We  have,  perhaps,  been  prematurely  glad.  In 
the  joy  of  seeing  our  haven  in  view  we  have  been  dis- 
posed to  slacken  the  cordage  and  let  the  sails  flap  idly, 
and  the  hands  go  below,  when  the  storm  was  not  fairly 
over  nor  all  the  breakers  out  of  sight !  God  has  startled 
us,  to  apprise  us  of  our  peril;  to  warn  us  of  possible 
mischances,  and  to  caution  us  how  we  abuse  our  con- 
fidence and  overtrust  our  enemy.  I  hope  and  pray  that 
the  nation  may  feel  itself,  by  the  dreadful  calamity 
that  has  befallen  it,  summoned  to  its  knees;  called  to 
a  still  more  pious  sense  of  its  dependence,  toned  up  to 
its  duties,  and  compelled  to  watch  with  the  most  eager 
patience  the  course  of  its  generals,  its  statesmen,  and 
its  press.  It  cannot  be  for  anything  short  of  the  utmost 
importance,  that  the  venerated  and  beloved  head  of  this 
people  and  his  chief  counselor  and  companion  have 
thus  been  brought  low  in  an  hour,  one  to  his  very  grave, 
the  other  to  the  gates  of  death ! 

It  would  seem  as  if  every  element  of  tragic  power 
and  pathos  were  fated  to  enter  into  this  rebellion,  and 
mark  it  out  forever  as  a  warning  to  the  world.  It 
really  began  in  the  Senate  House,  when  the  bludgeon 
of  South  Carolina  felled  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  honor  of  the  Union  in  the  person  of  a  brave 
and  eloquent  senator.  The  shot  at  Fort  Sumter  was 
not  so  truly  the  fatal  beginning  of  the  war  as  the  blow 
in  the  Senate  Chamber.  That  blow  proclaimed  the 
barbarism,  the  cruelty,  the  stealthiness,  the  treachery, 
the  recklessness  of  reason  and  justice,  the  contempt  of 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  37 

prudence  and  foresight  which  a  hundred  years  of  legal- 
ized oppression  and  inhumanity  had  bred  in  the 
South!  And  now,  that  blow,  deepened  into  thunder, 
echoes  from  the  head  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  as  if 
slavery  could  not  be  dismissed  forever,  until  her  bar- 
baric cruelty,  her  reckless  violence,  her  political  blas- 
phemy had  illustrated  itself  upon  the  most  conspicuous 
arena,  under  the  most  damning  light  and  the  most 
memorable  and  unforgetable  circumstances  in  which 
crime  was  ever  yet  committed ! 

And  in  the  same  hour  that  the  thoughtful,  meek,  and 
careworn  head  of  the  President  was  smitten  to  death, 
a  head  that  had  sunk  to  its  pillow  for  so  many  months 
full  of  unembittered,  gentle,  conciliatory,  yet  anxious 
and  watchful  thoughts — the  neck  on  which  that  Presi- 
dent had  leaned  with  an  affectionate  confidence  that 
was  half  womanly,  during  all  his  administration,  was 
assailed  with  the  bowie-knife,  which  stands  for  South- 
ern vengeance  and  slavery's  natural  weapon !  The  voice 
of  the  free  North,  the  tongue  and  throat  of  liberty,  was 
fitly  assailed,  when  slavery  and  secession  would  exhibit 
her  dying  feat  of  malignant  revenge.  Through  the 
channels  of  that  neck  had  flowed  for  thirty  years  the 
temperate,  persistent,  strong,  steady  currents  of  this 
nation's  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of  the  slave 
power,  of  this  people's  aspirations  for  release  from  the 
curse  and  the  peril  of  a  growing  race  of  slaves.  That 
throat  had  voiced  the  nation's  great  argument  in  the 
Senate  Chamber.  The  arm  that  had  written  the  great 
series  of  letters  which  defended  the  nation  from  the 
schemes  of  foreign  diplomatists,  was  already  acci- 
dentally broken ;  the  jaw  that  had  so  eloquently  moved 
was  dislocated  too;  but  slavery  remembered  the  neck 


38  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

that  bowed  not  when  most  others  were  bent  to  her 
power;  remembered  the  throat  that  was  vocal  in  her 
condemnation  when  most  others  in  public  life  were 
silent  from  policy  or  fear;  remembered  the  words  of 
him  who,  more  than  any  man,  slew  her  with  his  tongue ; 
and  so  her  last  assault  was  upon  the  jugular  veins  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  Her  bloodhounds  sprang  at  the 
throat  of  him  who  had  denied  their  right  and  broken 
their  power  to  spring  at  the  neck  of  the  slave  himself ! 

But  thus  far,  thank  God,  slavery  is  baffled  in  her 
last  effort.  Mr.  Seward  lives  to  tell  us  what  no  man 
knows  so  well — the  terrible  perils  through  which  we 
have  passed  at  home  and  abroad;  lives  to  tell  us  the 
goodness,  the  wisdom,  the  piety  of  the  President  he 
was  never  weary  of  praising.  *'He  is  the  best  man  I 
ever  knew,"  he  said  to  me,  a  year  ago.  What  a  eulogy 
from  one  so  experienced,  so  acute,  so  wise,  so  gentle! 
Ah,  brethren,  the  head  of  the  Government  is  gone;  but 
he  who  knew  his  counsels  and  was  his  other  self,  still 
lives,  and  may  God  hear  to-day  a  nation's  prayer  for 
his  life. 

Meanwhile  Heaven  rejoices  this  Easter  morning  in 
the  resurrection  of  our  lost  leader,  honored  in  the  day 
of  his  death;  dying  on  the  anniversary  of  our  Lord's 
great  sacrifice,  a  mighty  sacrifice  himself  for  the  sins 
of  a  whole  people. 

We  will  not  grudge  him  his  release,  or  selfishly  recall 
him  from  his  rest  and  his  reward!  The  only  unpitied 
object  in  this  national  tragedy,  he  treads  to-day  the 
courts  of  light,  radiant  with  the  joy  that  even  in 
Heaven  celebrates  our  Saviour's  resurrection  from  the 
dead!  The  sables  we  hang  in  our  sanctuaries  and 
streets  have  no  place  where  he  is !    His  hearse  is  plumed 


HENRY  W.  BELLOWS  39 

with  a  nation's  grief;  his  resurrection  is  hailed  with 
the  songs  of  revolutionary  patriots,  of  soldiers  that 
have  died  for  their  country.  He,  the  commander-in- 
chief,  has  gone  to  his  army  of  the  dead!  The  patriot 
President  has  gone  to  our  Washington !  The  meek  and 
lowly  Christian  is  to-day  with  him  who  said  on  earth, 
"Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  and  who,  rising  to-day,  fulfills 
his  glorious  words,  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life; 
he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live:  and  whoso  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  die." 


Ill 

EEV.  STEPHEN  H.  TYNG,  D.D. 

"And  the  king  of  Israel  said  unto  Elisha,  when  he  saw 
them,  My  father,  shall  I  smite  them?  shall  I  smite  them? 
And  he  answered.  Thou  shalt  not  smite  them:  wouldst  thou 
smite  those  whom  thou  hast  taken  captive  with  thy  sword 
and  with  thy  bow?  set  bread  and  water  before  them,  that 
they  may  eat  and  drink,  and  go  to  their  master." — 
2  Kings  6.  21,  22. 

The  point  of  this  story  is  very  manifest.  The  prin- 
ciple which  it  establishes  is  also  very  clear.  The  simple 
question  proposed  to  the  prophet  and  answered  by  him 
was:  What  shall  be  our  treatment  of  an  enemy  sub- 
dued? One  class  of  sentiment  demands,  in  the  very 
language  of  man's  nature:  "Shall  I  smite  them?"  An- 
other replies  in  the  spirit  of  the  divine  teaching:  "Set 
bread  and  water  before  them,  and  let  them  go."  The 
combination  of  both  would  be  in  the  analogy  of  the 
divine  administration.  "Behold  the  goodness  and  the 
severity  of  God."  There  are  those  involved  in  every 
such  crisis,  the  sparing  of  whom  is  false  to  the  true 
operation  of  mercy.  There  are  those  also,  the  punish- 
ing of  whom  would  be  an  avenging  undue  to  justice. 

Both  mercy  and  justice  derive  their  very  nature  and 
power  from  a  proportionate  discernment.  When  man 
describes  either  of  them  as  blind  and  unlimited,  he 
paints  them  as  arbitrary,  tyrannical,  and  unreasoning. 

40 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  41 

In  a  just  and  equitable  administration  of  government, 
whether  distributing  its  rewards  or  its  penalties,  there 
must  be  the  most  accurate  discerning  of  varied  respon- 
sibility. The  leaders  in  crime  should  never  be  excused 
from  the  just  penalty  of  their  offense.  The  subordi- 
nates— subjects  of  relative  influence — victims  of  deter- 
mined power — often  more  sinned  against  than  sinning 
— are  never  to  be  dealt  with  on  the  same  plane  of 
responsibility.  For  them,  mercy  delights  to  rejoice 
against  judgment,  and  the  highest  sovereignty  may  well 
display  itself  in  the  most  complete  forgiveness. 

In  the  story  which  lies  before  us  now,  four  separate 
facts  are  very  remarkable,  and  to  our  purpose  exiyemely 
appropriate.  I.  The  warfare  was  really  against  the 
God  of  Israel.  II.  The  power  which  prevailed  was  the 
providence  of  God.  III.  The  victory  attained  was  the 
gift  of  God.  IV.  The  resulting  treatment  of  the  cap- 
tives was  the  example  of  God. 

These  are  very  important  propositions  in  any 
earthly  crisis.  The  field  of  their  illustration  was  very 
limited  in  the  history  of  Israel.  The  extent  of  the  field, 
however,  will  not  affect  the  propriety  of  their  applica- 
tion. I  deem  them  remarkably  applicable  to  our  own 
national  condition.  And  as  you  require  and  expect  me, 
on  these  occasions  of  a  nation's  worship,  to  speak  on 
the  subjects  of  the  nation's  interest,  I  shall  freely  speak 
of  the  elements  and  obligations  of  the  present  crisis. 
I  assume  these  four  propositions  as  absolutely  and 
minutely  illustrated  by  our  national  condition. 

I.  The  warfare  which  this  Southern  rebellion  has 
made  on  our  Government  and  nation  has  been  really  a 
warfare  against  God.  Not  Israel  was  more  truly  a 
nation  divinely  collected,  divinely  governed,  divinely 


42         LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

commissioned,  divinely  prospered,  than  have  been  the 
United  States  of  America.  It  is  no  boastful  national- 
ism to  say  that  this  nation,  in  its  establishment  and 
prosperity,  was  the  last  hope  in  a  weary  world  that 
man  could  ever  on  earth  enjoy  a  peaceful  and  protected 
liberty.  This  broad,  unoccupied  continent,  which  God 
had  reserved  for  its  possession,  was  the  last  open  field 
of  earth  remaining  on  which  to  try  the  grand  experi- 
ment of  a  moral,  social,  intellectual  advancement  of  the 
peaceful  poor  of  the  human  family. 

Freedom,  education,  orderly  government,  secure  pos- 
sessions, equal  social  rights,  triumphant,  stable  law, 
universal  possibility  and  prospect  of  advancement,  com- 
plete freedom  in  man's  personal  relations  to  God,  had 
been  in  all  generations,  and  among  all  people,  flying 
before  the  violence  of  savage  force  and  brutish  selfish- 
ness. Here  was  the  last  possible  opening  for  their 
peaceful  conquest.  Here  only  on  earth  could  human 
welfare  be  attained  without  the  violence  of  destructive 
revolutions  and  the  overthrow  of  nations  in  the  con- 
fusion of  war  and  blood.  To  make  the  other  three 
quarters  of  the  globe  free  and  happy  demanded  a  proc- 
ess of  previous  destruction  of  reigning  evil.  To  make 
America  free,  happy,  and  prosperous  required  only 
that  it  should  be  settled  in  peace,  prospered  in  liberty, 
and  hallowed  in  prayer.  If  it  could  thus  be  settled 
with  plants  of  renown,  generations  to  come  should 
gather  from  it  the  fruits  of  paradise  and  glory. 

The  actual  circumstances  combining  to  make  up  the 
history  of  the  settlement  of  this  nation  were  so  pecul- 
iarly and  remarkably  an  ordering  and  arrangement  in 
divine  providence  that  I  will  not  waste  your  time,  or 
trifle  with  your  intelligence,  by  demonstrating  in  detail 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  43 

the  fact  that  God  has  chosen  this  place  and  this  people 
for  a  special  exhibition  of  his  own  wisdom  and  good- 
ness in  the  government  of  man  and  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  great  results  in  human  happiness,  which  had 
been  nowhere  else  attained.  I  should  be  ready  to  affirm 
that  whoever  warred  with  the  integrity,  prosperity,  and 
onward  growth  of  this  nation  warred  with  the  plans 
and  purposes  of  God. 

But  the  warfare  through  which  we  have  now  passed 
was  organized  expressly  to  overthrow  the  government 
and  integrity  of  the  American  nation,  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  local  sectional  sovereignties.  It  was 
avowed  to  be  for  the  arrest  and  destruction,  of  the 
dominion  of  universal  liberty,  and  for  the  maintenance 
and  perpetuation  of  American  slavery.  It  was  to  estab- 
lish a  perpetual  degradation  of  honorable  labor  and  of 
the  hard-toiling  laboring  classes  by  making  the  capital 
of  wealth  the  owner  of  the  labor  of  poverty.  It  was  to 
create  and  maintain  a  repulsive  rivalship  of  distinct 
and  contending  peoples  in  the  place  of  one,  united, 
and  mutually  sustaining  nation.  It  was  to  overturn 
the  whole  power,  which  this  nation  was  exercising  as 
a  nation,  to  bless  and  exalt  the  earth  by  breaking  it 
up  into  inferior  and  inefficient  communities,  an  example 
of  good  to  none,  a  probable  curse  to  all. 

I  cannot  conceive  of  a  warfare,  in  its  inauguration 
and  purpose,  more  completely  against  the  purposes  and 
the  commands  of  the  Most  High.  If  we  could  imagine 
its  success  in  the  accomplishment  of  these  avowed  pur- 
poses of  this  rebellion,  it  would  be  impossible  to  cal- 
culate, in  human  reasoning,  the  sorrows  which  it  would 
have  brought  upon  a  laboring  earth.  It  would  have 
been  the  success  of  savage,  bloodthirsty  hatred  over 


44  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

all  the  arts  of  peace  aud  the  employments  and  habits  of 
patient  and  civilized  men.    It  would  have  been  the  tri- 
umph of  murder  and  cruelty,  in  spirit  and  habit,  in- 
tensified by  the  pride  of  power,  over  all  the  barriers  of 
law  and  the  restraints  of  opinion.    It  would  have  been 
the  overthrow  of  all  the  efforts  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence in  the  mere  hardihood  of  selfish  gain  and  acrid 
hostility.    It  would  have  been  the  ruin  of  the  Christian 
Church  with  all  its  associations  for  the  spreading  of 
the  Gospel  and  honoring  and  establishing  the  Word  of 
God.     It  would  have  spread  a  desolation,  moral  and 
physical,  over  this  whole  continent,  devouring  the  hopes 
of  coming  generations,  and  blasting  the  anticipations 
of  future  goodness  and  greatness  to  the  children  of  men. 
The  spirit,  the  mind,  the  heart  of  this  rebellion  have 
been  displayed  in  the  long-continued  sufferings  of  the 
negro — in   the  oppression  and  contempt  of  the  poor 
whites — in  the  native  love  of  bloodshed,  which  has  de- 
lighted in  dueling  and  schooled  itself  in  the  skill  of 
murder — in  the  foulness  of  lust,  which  has  left  its  fruits 
and  marks  in  indelible  monuments  through  the  whole 
Southern   country.     They  have  now  displayed   them- 
selves far  more  distinctly,  but  in  an  accordant  manner, 
in  the  unprecedented  and   incredible  cruelties  which 
have  been  inflicted  on  our  captive  soldiers — deliberately 
planning  the  murder  of  thousands  perfectly  helpless, 
and  the  objects  of  pity  to  all  other  nations,  by  starva- 
tion, cruelty,  and  neglect.     The  whole  exhibition  of 
that  people,  as  a  people,  has  been  so  deeply,  intensely 
wicked,  that  it  was  incredible,  and  was  not  and  could 
not  be  believed  that  such  a  race  of  men,  within  the 
limits  of  outward  civilization,  were  to  be  found  on 
earth.    Their  success  would  have  been  the  most  shock- 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  45 

ing  social  desolation  and  accumulated  crime  that  the 
human  race  has  ever  seen. 

But  even  all  this  has  not  aroused  the  public  senti- 
ment of  our  nation  to  the  conviction  that  we  were  really 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Lord  against  the  enemies  of 
man.  And  it  has  required  this  last  ripened  fruit  of  a 
demoniac  hatred,  in  the  shocking  murder  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic  in  the  quietness  of  secure  repose, 
and  the  cowardly  assassination  of  his  Cabinet  minister 
in  the  helplessness  of  a  bed  of  sickness  and  suffering, 
long  planned,  encouraged,  and  urged  in  public  papers 
as  a  deed  of  honor,  to  make  perfectly  manifest  that 
this  whole  warfare  has  been  an  assault  of  the  most  vio- 
lent of  men  upon  all  that  was  orderly,  conservative, 
and  beneficent  in  the  gift  of  God  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  mankind.  And  no  unprejudiced  and  impartial 
reader  of  history  will  hereafter,  in  his  survey  of  the 
whole  period,  hesitate  to  say:  "Never  was  there  more 
clearly  on  earth  an  instance  of  that  heavenly  war, 
when  Michael  and  his  angels  fought  against  the  dragon, 
and  Satan  which  deceiveth  the  whole  world  was  cast 
out  into  the  earth." 

II.  The  power  which  has  prevailed  was  the  provi- 
dence of  God.  The  whole  survey  of  this  contest  past 
has  been  a  review  of  divine  providence.  The  facts  suc- 
ceeding have  been  successive  steps  in  this  remarkable 
development  of  providence.  The  divine  concealment 
of  the  real  issue  from  the  body  of  our  people  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  struggle  was  the  opening  line  of  this 
providence.  How  few  were  willing  to  accept  the 
thought,  that  thus  God  would  overturn  the  giant  wrong 
of  human  slavery!  How  few  could  look  upon  the  ap- 
parently mad  attempt  of  John  Brown,  in  the  feeling 


46         LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

that  he  was,  after  all,  the  Wicklifife  of  the  coming  day — 
the  morning  star  of  a  new  reformation!  We  did  not 
justify  him ;  we  do  not — we  need  not  justify  him  now. 
But  we  see  him  now  as  we  dared  not  believe  him  then, 
opening  a  battle  in  a  single  duel,  which  should  have  no 
other  end  than  the  universal  destruction  of  the  slavery 
of  man. 

We  were  then  combining  to  contend  for  a  Constitu- 
tion as  it  was.  We  asked  no  change.  How  few  im- 
agined that  we  were  to  fight  out  its  glorious  amend- 
ment on  the  side  of  liberty  until  the  signature  of  every 
State  to  its  adoption  should  be  written  in  the  blood  of 
its  noblest  citizens  and  youth !  We  then  pressed  a  com- 
pensated emancipation,  and  were  ready  to  pay  for  it, 
at  any  conceivable  price.  How  few  could  imagine  that 
the  States  involved  would  madly  refuse  the  oflfer,  until 
God's  peculiar  plan  should  be  wrought  out,  to  let  his 
captives  go.  but  not  by  price  or  reward ! 

Most  slowly  did  even  that  wisest  man  among  us,  who 
has  been  the  last  great  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  lib- 
erty, reach  even  a  measure  of  willingness  that  the  issue 
of  liberty  should  be  in  the  war  at  all.  And  yet  how  per- 
sistently did  this  great  issue  rise,  as  much  by  reproach- 
ful objections  against  it,  as  by  growing  clearness  of 
perception  concerning  it,  till  at  last  South  and  North 
combined  to  see  that  the  one  grand  question  for  white 
and  black,  for  bond  and  free,  was  that  which  they  called 
"the  everlasting  negro." 

How  completely  hidden  from  our  possible  view  was 
the  extent  of  time  and  suffering  to  which  the  war 
should  reach !  Could  all  its  demands  have  been  calcu- 
lated and  surveyed,  how  few  would  have  been  willing  to 
embark  upon  a  sea  so  troubled  and  apparently  so  hope- 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  47 

less !  We  thought  of  thousands  of  precious  lives.  Who 
would  have  dared  to  coufrout  the  certainty  of  a  mil- 
lion? On  the  one  side  was  ample  and  long-planned 
preparation  and  thought,  adequate  material,  and  the 
edge  of  united  purpose  whetted  to  its  utmost  temper; 
men  that  were  prepared  to  fight,  and  determined  to 
fight,  not  in  a  question  of  local  liberty,  but  of  universal 
conquest.  On  the  other  side  was  the  habit  of  good- 
natured  yielding  of  every  thing  for  peace,  a  total  want 
of  preparation  of  material,  a  greater  want  even  of 
spirit  and  desire  to  enter  upon  the  contest.  How  gladly 
would  they  have  made  any  concession  and  accepted  any 
compromise  before  the  grand  determination  for  the 
trial  was  wound  up!  Years  of  defeat  were  in  store; 
apparently  certain  divisions  were  prepared;  men's 
hearts  failed  them  when  they  looked  at  the  things 
which  were  coming;  and  yet  all  that  they  saw  or  im- 
agined was  but  a  mere  toying  with  the  great  issue, 
when  compared  with  the  approaching  reality,  which 
they  did  not  see. 

How  wonderfully  and  unexpectedly  was  the  union  of 
the  North  created,  by  the  very  assault  on  Sumter  which 
was  to  fire  the  Southern  heart !  How  few  would  have 
believed  that  all  the  Southern  calculation  upon  a 
divided  North,  all  the  fears  of  mutual  contests  in  our 
own  streets,  were  to  be  put  to  rest  forever  in  the  mere 
process  of  the  controversy !  What  a  providence  for  us 
was  that  sudden  seizing  of  all  forts  and  arsenals  and 
public  property,  in  the  incredible  violence  and  mad 
earnestness,  when  a  calm  and  pretentious  scheme  of 
counsel  would  probably  have  betrayed  our  giant  power 
in  its  sleep. 

How  graciously  God  has  all  the  time  stimulated  pur- 


48         LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

pose,  and  elevated  faith,  aud  new-created  hope,  by  the 
mere  mortification  of  defeats !  How  mercifully  he  has 
trained  us  up  to  the  national  idea,  that  we  are  a  people, 
that  we  are  one  people,  by  scattering  the  blood  of  New 
England  and  the  West,  of  the  Middle  and  the  South, 
of  the  hilltops  and  the  shore,  in  one  common  sprinkling, 
through  the  whole  field  of  warfare;  burying  the  dead 
of  the  whole  land  side  by  side,  in  far  distant  but  fra- 
ternal and  equal  cemeteries;  giving  a  title  to  every 
State,  in  every  soil,  in  this  precious  planting  of  their 
strength  and  glory;  until  at  length  we  have  come  to 
rejoice  in  being  one  people,  under  one  ruler — and  in 
the  one  title,  American,  we  know  no  North,  no  South, 
no  East,  no  West !  How  remarkable  is  that  providence 
which  has  given  us  a  new  currency,  negotiable  through- 
out the  continent,  founded  upon  the  aggregate  of  the 
property  of  the  nation,  and  cherished  and  made  certain 
by  the  very  pride  of  the  people;  making  that  which  is 
proverbially,  in  social  economy,  the  weakness  of  a 
nation,  the  very  strength  of  ours ! 

What  a  providence  was  that  which  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  our  iron-clads  on  the  sea!  "Man  had  not  de- 
signed or  intended  it.  Our  authorities  did  not  suspect 
the  coming,  if  they  were  aware  even  the  character  of 
the  Merrimac,  when  she  bore  down  upon  our  wooden 
fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Norfolk.  No  preparation  had 
been  made  sufficient  to  meet  her.  The  Monitor,  the 
only  vessel  in  our  whole  navy  that  was  able  to  cope 
successfully  with  her  terrible  armament  and  iron-plated 
sides,  was  considered  of  so  little  importance,  that  when 
she  steamed  out  of  the  port  of  New  York,  on  her  trial 
trip,  few  were  aware  of  her  departure.  She  was  not 
sent  to  engage  her  powerful  foe.    On  the  contrary,  while 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  49 

iipou  her  passage  south,  an  order  from  the  Navy  De- 
partment was  sent  to  call  her  back.  But  God  inter- 
posed. The  order  was  not  permitted  to  be  delivered. 
Winds  and  storm  were  made  the  executors  of  his  will. 
Her  voyage  was  retarded  sufficiently  to  permit  her  an- 
tagonist to  come  forth  and  display  her  character  and 
power,  but  not  sufficiently  to  prevent  Jier  coming  in 
time  to  save  and  defend  the  nation's  property  and  the 
nation's  honor.  At  the  very  moment  when  really 
needed,  when  most  desired,  and  all  was  apparently  lost 
she  came  to  the  rescue  and  secured  a  glorious  victory. 
It  was  a  victory  given  of  God.''  It  secured  the  suc- 
cession of  similar  victories  and  the  perennial  monu- 
ments of  the  skill  and  courage  of  American  naval  war- 
fare. 

All  these  are  lines  of  providence — exalted,  hidden, 
beyond  our  conception  or  arrangement.  We  might 
multiply  them  almost  indefinitely,  for  they  cover  the 
whole  field  of  observation.  Every  step  which  these 
Southern  rebels  have  taken,  they  have  been  fighting 
against  a  providence  that  has  been  resistless,  and  have 
been  compelled  to  defeat  themselves.  They  have  fought 
for  slavery  as  a  divine  institution,  until  they  were 
compelled  absurdly  to  promise  liberty  to  their  slaves, 
if  they  would  enlist  and  fight  for  slavery  with  them. 
Emancipation  was  made  the  boon  for  the  black  equally 
by  the  North  and  the  South.  They  had  vast  crops  of 
cotton,  which  they  laid  up  for  Northern  armies  to  seize. 
They  issued  an  unlimited  order  to  plant  only  for  food, 
to  cover  their  territory  with  corn,  and  thus  prepared 
the  way  for  the  support  of  Northern  troops  in  their 
glorious  march  through  the  whole  length  of  the  rebel- 
ling territory. 


50         LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

They  have  lain  in  constrained  idleness  around  Rich- 
mond until  the  gathering  hosts  from  abroad  were  too 
manifestly  encircling  them  to  permit  a  longer  quiet. 
And  then  Richmond  must  be  evacuated,  and  their 
whole  armies,  driven  from  their  burrow,  be  made  to 
surrender  in  the  field.  These  are  wonderful  provi- 
dences of  God. 

Perhaps  the  last  act  of  providence  is  the  most  re- 
markable of  all.  They  have  combined  for  the  murder 
of  the  President  and  his  cabinet,  in  the  hope  of  creating 
an  unexpected  anarchy  of  a  nation  without  a  ruler, 
and  of  involving  the  nation,  in  the  suddenness  of  its 
despair,  in  an  inextricable  and  hopeless  revolution. 
But  how  God  has  confounded  the  counsel  of  Ahitho- 
phel!  Satan  was  not  more  deceived  when  he  plunged 
the  Jewish  mob  into  the  murder  of  their  Lord,  than 
when,  on  this  very  commemoration  day  of  his  cruci- 
fixion, he  has  aimed  a  traitor's  bullet  against  the  ex- 
alted ruler  of  this  people.  It  is  a  costly  sacrifice, 
indeed,  to  us,  but  the  blessings  which  it  will  purchase 
may  be  well  worth  the  price.  It  has  demonstrated  the 
spirit  and  fruit  of  this  rebellion.  It  has  made  it  abhor- 
rent and  hateful  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  nation.  It 
has  cut  up  all  partial,  trifling  dealing  with  it  by  the 
roots.  It  has  introduced  a  ruler  whose  stern  expe- 
rience of  Southern  wickedness  will  cut  off  all  pleas  of 
leniency  to  the  base  destroyers  of  their  country.  It 
has  cemented  forever  the  national  union  and  spirit  of 
this  people,  by  making  the  man  whom  they  most  loved 
and  honored  the  last  great  sacrifice  for  the  liberty  and 
order  of  the  people.  And  just  as  the  murder  of  Charles 
the  First  has  been  the  one  grand  support  of  the  English 
throne  for  two  centuries,  has  made  rebellion  incouceiv- 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  51 

ably  hateful  to  the  loyal  mind,  and  warned  oflf  genera- 
tions of  Englishmen  from  all  approaches  to  rebellion 
so  will  the  murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln  sanctify  the  right 
and  power  of  Government,  and  make  rebellion  forever 
hateful  to  the  American  nation. 

If  there  be  this  day  a  single  fact  which  especially 
strengthens  the  royal  house  and  government  of  Eng- 
land, it  is  the  unrighteous  murder  of  the  first  Charles. 
The  severed  head  of  a  Stuart  is  the  foundation  stone 
beneath  the  throne  of  Britain  and  Victoria.  And  if 
there  be  one  fact  of  providence  which  hereafter  will 
especially  consecrate  the  right  of  national  authority, 
and  overwhelm  the  first  suggestion  of  secession  or 
treason,  it  will  be  this  murder  of  the  man  whom  all 
history  will  acknowledge  the  wisest,  purest,  greatest, 
best  of  American  rulers;  if  not  the  Father  of  his 
country,  at  least  the  loved  brother  of  all  his  people, 
and  the  friend  and  defender  of  the  poorest  and  lowest 
of  all  its  generations.  Thus  has  providence  triumphed 
over  our  enemies  and  given  us  the  victory. 

III.  The  victory  is  the  gift  of  God.  This  is  so  clear 
in  fact,  and  so  clearly  a  consequence  of  the  series  of 
facts  which  we  have  already  considered,  that  I  need 
not  illustrate  it  in  minute  detail.  The  time  is  too 
recent  for  our  forgetfulness  of  any  of  the  great  dis- 
tinguishing facts  which  have  marked  this  warfare,  or 
to  permit  us  to  arrogate  the  honor  to  our  own  skill  and 
power  alone.  It  is  impossible  to  forget  the  gloomy 
aspect  of  the  first  years  of  this  struggle — when  at  the 
East  we  were  for  a  time  severed  from  all  communica- 
tion with  the  national  capital — and  in  the  West,  all  the 
States  watered  by  the  Mississippi  up  to  the  Ohio,  and 
higher  on  the  western  side,  were  held  and  fortified  by 

^,  ui^jvtK^lTY  OF  iLUJiOli 

LiBRAfiJ 


52         LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  rebellion.  It  is  impossible  to  forget  the  sadness  of 
defeat  after  defeat  in  Virginia;  the  inaction  and  un- 
willingness, on  the  part  of  some  of  our  leaders,  to  act 
in  positive  aggression  against  this  Southern  power, 
so  conspicuously  exalted,  so  defiant,  so  boastful,  so  en- 
couraged from  abroad;  the  threatening  aspect  of  the 
Border  States,  as  they  were  called ;  the  bold  threats  of 
the  leaders  of  the  rebellion,  of  the  devastation  and  ruin 
they  were  to  bring  upon  this  Northern  land. 

It  is  impossible  to  undervalue  the  courage,  the  union, 
the  determination,  the  spirit  with  which  these  Southern 
rebels  were  inspired  and  sustained  in  their  infuriated 
purpose.  It  is  impossible  to  forget  the  devout  humble- 
ness of  spirit  with  which  our  beloved  and  exalted  Presi- 
dent called  the  thoughts  and  dependence  of  the  people, 
like  some  ancient  ruler  in  the  Theocracy,  back  to  God. 
And  when  in  the  opening  of  the  second  year  General 
Grant  commenced  his  victorious  career  in  the  West — 
and  Donelson,  and  Pittsburg  Landing,  and  Vicks- 
burg,  were  rapid  fruits  of  his  valor,  wisdom,  and  fidel- 
ity; and  Dupont  made  his  great  opening  on  the  coast 
of  South  Carolina;  and  Burnside  effected  his  perma- 
nent lodgment  on  the  inland  shore  of  North  Carolina; 
and  the  noble  Farragut  opened  the  Mississippi  to  New 
Orleans,  meeting  in  his  upward  ascent  the  fleets  which 
came  down  from  the  waters  above:  and  Kentucky,  Mis- 
souri, Tennessee,  and  Maryland  were  all  recovered  to 
a  permanent  Union;  and  Antietam  and  Gettysburg 
were  the  remarkable  tokens  of  divine  protection  within 
the  limits  of  our  own  eastern  soil;  it  was  impossible 
not  to  discern  the  hand  of  God,  giving  victory  from  the 
very  hour  that  the  war  was  acknowledged  to  be  a  war 
for  liberty  as  well  as  order — and  for  the  deliverance  of 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  53 

the  oppressed,  as  truly  as  for  the  conserving  of  the  pros- 
perous and  peaceful. 

Accordingly,  again  and  again  did  our  exalted  and 
believing  President  issue  his  proclamations  of  thanks- 
giving, sounding  the  appeal  in  the  ears  of  the  whole 
nation — O !  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  who  maketh  us 
to  triumph  over  our  enemies.  But  later  victories  are 
even  more  remarkable.  The  rapid  campaign  of  Sher- 
man, and  the  quiet  imperturbable  wisdom,  faith,  and 
purpose  of  General  Grant,  in  the  combination  of  all  his 
varied  concentrating  forces — in  his  calm  endurance — • 
in  his  modest  self-abnegation,  in  his  fidelity  to  duty, 
and  success  in  duty,  have  no  parallel  in  the  greatness 
of  character  which  they  severally  manifest  in  human 
history.  All  these  displays,  though  grand  in  them- 
selves, are  but  a  part  of  the  one  wonderful  divine 
scheme.  All  talent,  calculation,  courage,  and  force 
opposed  to  them  seem  to  have  been  paralyzed  and 
made  useless.  And  as  I  survey  the  whole  scene,  thus 
rapidly  noted,  I  should  hold  myself  an  infidel  in 
spirit  not  to  say.  It  is  God  alone  who  giveth  us  the 
victory. 

But  I  deem  all  these  displays  inferior  and  secondary. 
The  moral  greatness  of  the  President,  his  meekness, 
his  faith,  his  gentleness,  his  patience,  his  self-posses- 
sion, his  love  of  the  people,  his  confidence  in  the  people, 
his  higher  confidence  in  God,  his  generous  temper  never 
provoked,  his  love  fearing  no  evil,  provoking  no  evil, 
are  such  an  elevation  of  human  character,  such  an 
appropriate  supply  for  our  very  want,  that  I  cannot 
but  adore  the  power  of  that  God,  whose  inspiration 
giveth  man  wisdom,  as  the  one  author  of  this  gift  bring- 
ing an  unknown,  a  reproached,  a  despised  man  to  reveal 


54         LINCOLN  MEMOEIAL  ADDRESSES 

a  greatness  of  ability,  and  a  dignity  of  appropriation, 
which  surrounding  men  had  not  suspected,  which  shone 
too  purely  and  too  beautifully  to  be  envied  or  hated 
by  any,  and  which  have  at  last  commanded  universal 
confidence  and  homage  from  those  who  had  never 
united  to  sustain  him. 

Yet  the  divine  interposition  does  not  leave  the  field 
even  here.  The  creation  of  the  wonderful  spirit  and 
reach  of  human  beneficence  and  ministration,  which 
we  have  seen  in  the  midst  of  this  war,  and  by  this  war, 
and  for  this  war,  throughout  our  country,  is  even  a 
higher  demonstration  of  the  divine  presence  and  power. 
The  calling  forth  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Com- 
missions, like  the  father  and  mother  of  the  household, 
in  their  separate  relationships  and  responsibility — the 
one  striving  for  material  provision,  the  other  minister- 
ing the  words  and  acts  of  kindness  and  love  to  those 
made  the  objects  of  their  protection;  the  creating  of 
the  Freedmen's  Commission,  to  search  and  care  for  the 
poor  outcasts,  for  whom  nothing  was  provided — the 
prompting  of  the  Union  Commission  to  minister  to  the 
wants  of  those  whom  rebellion  had  stripped,  and  ren- 
dered homeless  and  destitute,  for  whom  no  other  pro- 
tection seemed  prepared! — the  starting  forth  of  Homes 
for  Disabled  Soldiers,  and  the  orphans  of  soldiers,  and 
the  millions  of  dollars  given  by  a  people  heavily  taxed 
and  burdened  by  all  the  cost  of  defending  their  liberty 
and  their  nation,  for  the  grand  and  glorious  purpose  of 
ministering  increased  comfort  to  their  varied  objects  of 
spontaneous  consideration  and  sympathy — displaying 
a  love,  and  tenderness,  and  purpose,  which  have  grown 
brighter  in  the  midst  of  the  very  sorrows  which  have 
filled  every  house  and  heart — have  been  such  a  divine 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  55 

display  of  God's  interposition,  as  nothing  on  earth 
beside  has  equaled. 

How  strangely  contrasted  has  all  this  divine  teach- 
ing and  guidance  appeared  with  the  recklessness  of 
life  and  comfort  which  have  marked  the  history  of  the 
agents  of  this  rebellion !  How  Inost  highly  contrasted 
in  the  different  relations  adopted  toward  the  prisoners 
of  war !  No  cruelty  to  our  prisoners  in  Southern  hands 
could  move  our  Government  to  a  bitter  retaliation. 
Even  though  sometimes  an  occasional  excitement  of 
acerbity  among  the  people,  excessively  provoked  by 
the  tales  of  suffering  which  they  heard,  has  demanded 
some  retaliation,  the  President  could  never  be  brought 
to  be  the  agent  of  revenge  or  cruelty;  and  the  general 
sentiment  of  this  people  would  never  have  consented 
to  it  as  a  principle  of  national  rule.  That  God,  who 
has  given  them  the  victory  in  the  line  of  their  fidelity 
to  himself,  would  have  vindicated  his  own  honor  in 
their  humiliation  if  they  had  laid  such  unhallowed 
hands  upon  the  ark  of  God.  And  now  all  this  survey 
is  of  a  finished  work.  God  hath  given  us  the  victory. 
And  there  remains  as  the  one  absorbing  thought  that 
which  is  our  fourth  point — 

IV.  The  resulting  treatment  of  the  captives  in  the 
Lord's  example:  "My  father,  shall  I  smite  them?  Shall 
I  smite  them  ?"  "Thou  shalt  not  smite  them :  wouldst 
thou  smite  those  whom  thou  hast  taken  captive  with 
thy  sword,  and  with  thy  bow?  Set  bread  and  water 
before  them,  that  they  may  eat  and  drink,  and  let  them 
go.''  The  carrying  out  of  this  resuscitating  plan  seemed 
eminently  adapted  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  President 
Lincoln.  But  too  great  personal  honor  and  influence 
it  is  not  the  will  of  God  to  entrust  to  individual  men. 


56         LINCOLN  MEMOIUAL  ADDRESSES 

When  Moses  came  to  the  entrauce  ujjou  the  Land  of 
Promise,  he  was  permitted,  b^-  faith  enlightened,  to  see 
something  of  its  glory.  But  he  was  not  personally  to 
minister  in  its  settlement  or  distribution.  He  beheld 
the  glowing  future  spread  before  his  people,  and  laid 
down  in  the  land  of  Moab  to  die. 

So  our  beloved  leader  has  been  allowed  to  live  until, 
as  from  Pisgah's  height,  he  could  contemplate  the  fast 
approaching  future  for  his  nation.  He  saw  the  enemy 
subdued,  their  strongholds  taken,  their  army  scattered 
every  man  to  his  home,  and  the  sure  prospect  of  union, 
liberty,  and  peace  before  the  nation.  The  one  remain- 
ing question  was.  What  shall  be  done  with  those  whom 
God  has  thus  subdued?  The  generosity  of  his  spirit 
and  wish,  his  readiness  to  give  the  utmost  possible 
latitude  to  mercy  in  the  arrangement  of  their  return 
to  national  duty  and  penitent  loyalty,  were  perfectly 
understood  and  known.  All  this  future  he  was  calmly, 
kindly  considering,  when  his  life  was  taken  from  him 
by  the  hand  of  violence.  We  shall  not  withhold  our 
lament  that  death  found  him  in  the  sanctioning  by  his 
presence  of  the  demoralizing  influence  of  the  theater, 
unwillingly  as  he  evidently  went  there.  That  he  should 
have  been  slain  in  a  Moab  like  this  can  never  be  any- 
thing but  a  sorrow  to  every  serious  mind.  The  full  pur- 
pose of  that  providence  we  do  not  yet  read.  This 
death,  like  the  burning  of  the  Richmond  theater,  many 
years  since,  maj^  awaken  a  feeling  of  increased  horror 
and  aversion  to  the  seductive  influence  of  the  theater 
throughout  our  religious  community,  and  may  thus  be 
a  blessing  in  the  divine  providence  to  arise  from  this 
sad  incident  in  his  departure. 

But  he  has  gone  before  the  settlement,  and  without 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  57 

the  settlement  of  this  great  problem  of  the  coming  influ- 
ence and  relation  of  his  administration.  That  his  death 
will  change  in  some  degree  the  character  and  measure 
of  that  influence  cannot  be  doubted.  That  a  restriction 
shall  come  as  the  consequence  of  his  death  upon  the 
freeness  of  the  action  of  mercy  to  the  conquered  is 
most  natural  and  just.  Human  law  knows  no  crime 
greater  in  its  malignity,  or  in  its  effects,  than  the 
murder  of  the  ruler  of  a  nation,  the  final,  heaviest  guilt 
of  treason  against  its  authority.  That  others,  whose 
influence  and  example  have  nourished  this  spirit,  whose 
words  and  avowals  have  often  before  encouraged  and 
incited  it,  shall  be  held  responsible  for  it,  is  inevitable 
and  just.  And  our  Government  owe  it  to  the  majesty 
of  the  nation,  and  to  the  authority  of  God,  which  they 
represent,  not  to  allow  such  an  abhorrent  violation  of 
human  authority  and  safety  to  pass  without  a  very 
clear  and  distinct  retribution  upon  the  guilty  inciters 
and  accessories  in  such  a  crime. 

Still,  let  not  a  spirit  of  individual  vengeance  be 
allowed  to  rear  the  monument  to  our  fallen  head.  Let 
not  passion  seize  the  reins  of  guidance  in  an  hour  so 
momentous.  Let  the  widest  possible  door  be  opened  for 
the  exercises  of  kindness,  and  the  utterance  of  welcome 
to  those  who  honestly  desire  to  return  to  their  loyalty 
and  duty  to  the  nation  which  they  have  outraged,  and 
the  Government  which  they  have  insulted  and  despised. 
The  intelligent  leaders  in  this  rebellion  deserve  no  pity 
from  any  human  being.  Let  them  go.  Some  other  land 
must  be  their  home.  Their  own  attained  relations  and 
results  will  be  punishment  and  sorrow  enough  in  time 
to  come.  Their  property  is  justly  forfeited  to  the 
nation  which  they  have  attempted  to  destroy,  and  to 


58  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  oppressed,  over  whom  they  have  tyrannized  and 
triumphed.  If  the  just  utterance  of  law  condemns 
them  personally  to  suffer  as  traitors,  let  no  life  be 
taken  in  the  spirit  of  vengeance.  Let  the  world  see  one 
instance  of  a  Government  that  is  great  enough  to  ask 
no  revenge,  and  self-confident  and  self-sustaining 
enough  to  need  no  retributive  violence  to  maintain  the 
majesty  of  its  authority.  Let  the  Lord's  own  example 
be,  to  the  utmost  extent  of  personal  relations,  our  rule 
and  purpose,  determined  in  the  spirit  of  union  and 
patience  and  kindness,  to  edify  and  restore,  in  the  wid- 
est possible  application  of  the  spirit,  consistent  with 
the  nation's  safety  and  the  honor  of  the  laws — the  mul- 
titudes who  have  been  swept  down  the  current  of  rebel- 
lion by  the  dominant  influence  and  example  of  those 
whom  they  have  been  taught  to  regard  as  their  leaders 
in  the  path  of  public  duty. 

There  may  be  great  difficulties  in  the  details  of  the 
resuscitation  of  our  afflicted  land.  But  there  can  be 
none  which  such  a  spirit  and  purpose  as  were  displayed 
in  President  Lincoln  would  not  soon  overcome  and 
remove.  And  upon  nothing  will  memory  more  delight 
to  dwell  than  upon  that  high  forgiving  temper  which 
lifts  up  a  fallen  foe,  restores  a  wandering  brother,  and 
repays  the  cruelty  of  hatred  by  an  overcoming  benig- 
nity and  love.  Little  was  he  known  in  character  and 
tendency  by  those  who  met  his  first  administration 
with  violent  threats,  and  reproachful  libels.  And  little 
has  the  real  spirit  of  this  Northern  people  been  known 
by  the  great  body  of  the  South,  who  really  know  but 
little  upon  any  subject,  but  as  their  accredited  supe- 
riors have  been  accustomed  to  teach  them.  They  have 
heard   from  their  highest   rebel  officers   nothing  but 


STEPHEN  H.  TYNG  59 

terms  of  low  and  ribaldrous  reproach,  and  scorn  applied 
to  us.  They  have  called  us  hyenas,  and  satisfied  theiP 
hatred  by  the  freedom  of  unlimited  abuse.  But  in 
reality  there  has  never  been  a  time  when  this  whole 
Northern  people  have  not  been  ready  to  meet  the  first 
offer  of  conciliation  with  the  most  cordial  response 
of  kindness.  Let  that  spirit  now  prevail.  Open  the 
arms  of  fraternal  concord.  Spread  through  all  the 
land  the  priceless  blessings  of  liberty  and  educa- 
tion to  all  the  people.  Give  the  full  rights  of  respected 
and  acknowledged  citizenship  to  all.  Blot  out,  cover 
up  the  last  remnant  of  that  slavery  which  has  been  the 
parent  and  the  child  of  every  species  of  oppression — 
the  one  line  of  division  between  a  free  North  and  a 
beggared  South — and  plant  around  the  grave  that 
holds  the  monument  and  the  memory  of  our  beloved 
President  a  mingled  grove  of  the  pine-tree  and  the 
palm,  the  orange  and  the  apple,  to  flourish  in  immortal 
union,  and  to  rival  each  other  only  in  the  beauty  of  their 
growth,  the  abundance  of  their  fruit,  and  the  perennial 
verdure  of  their  living  foliage,  that  God  may  be  glori- 
fied in  all  and  by  all  forever. 


IV 

REV.  CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON 

"He  was  a  good  man,  and  a  just," — Luke  23.  50. 

One  other  Sabbath  like  this  I  remember,  and  only 
one;  that  of  which  this  is  the  exact  anniversary,  four 
years  ago.  What  humiliated  the  nation  then  is  now 
measurably  rectified.  The  ensign  of  our  country  floats 
once  more  on  the  ramparts  from  which  it  had  just  been 
torn  by  the  fierce  hand  of  treason.  The  same  batteries 
that  hurled  shot  and  shell  at  the  fortress,  whose  name 
has  become  historic,  have  been  forced  to  pour  forth 
their  empty  salutes  in  honor  of  the  restoration.  And 
the  proclamation  is  already  in  the  air,  which  was  to 
summon  a  grateful  Republic  to  a  thanksgiving  for  the 
manifold  mercy  of  Almighty  God. 

Right  in  the  midst  of  our  rejoicing  we  are  dashed  into 
sorrow  deeper  than  ever.  To-day  it  is  not  the  humbling 
of  our  pride  that  makes  us  mourn,  but  the  wounding  of 
our  hearts  in  their  keenest  sensibilities.  For  he  who 
has  been  our  leader  lies  low  in  his  coflBn ;  foul  murder 
has  been  done  at  the  capital;  and  the  nation  stands 
hushed  in  the  presence  of  its  unburied  dead. 

Have  the  old  days  of  barbarism  returned  upon  us? 
Is  assassination  become  civilized?  Has  the  bullet  of  a 
murderer  recognition  as  a  belligerent  right?  In  what 
age  do  we  live?    Is  justice  dead?    Where  are  we?    How 

60 


CHAKLES  S.  ROBINSON  61 

happens  it  that  the  wires  quiver  with  tidings  of  deeds 
worthy  only  of  the  darkest  years  of  Venetian  conspir- 
acy and  shame? 

I  said,  we  have  got  the  flag  back  again  on  Sumter. 
So  we  have.  But  only  at  half-mast.  It  reached  the 
staff  just  in  time  to  droop.  Men  began  to  cheer — sud- 
denly they  turned  to  wailing.  The  triumph  seems  a 
mockery.  Victory  waits  recognition  unheeded,  for  the 
bells  are  tolling.  He  who  made  our  success  welcome 
is  not  here  to  share  it.  Abraham  Lincoln^  the  honored 
and  beloved  head  of  the  nation,  is  no  more ! 

My  brethren,  bear  me  record  here  to-day.  This  pulpit 
has  never  uttered  one  timid,  troubled  word  in  these 
four  years.  I  have  not  lost  heart  for  a  moment  in  the 
essential  righteousness  of  our  cause,  nor  confidence  in 
the  final  success  that  would  come  to  it.  You  will  mis- 
understand my  language  now,  and  mistake  my  temper, 
if  you  imagine  I  am  cowed  into  any  wavering,  startled 
into  any  irresolution,  or  grieved  into  any  distrust,  by 
the  terrible  events  of  the  hour.  But  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  conceal  from  you  that  I  am  shocked  more  than  ever 
before,  and  under  the  cloud  of  God's  providence  as  I 
never  expected  to  be.  I  do  not  know  the  meaning  of 
this  awful  transaction.  I  could  almost  wish  it  was 
the  custom  to  wear  sackcloth,  and  put  ashes  on  mourn- 
ers' heads.  All  the  day  would  I  fittingly  sit  silent 
under  the  shadow  of  a  common  grief  with  you.  I  speak 
truly  when  I  say,  I  have  met  no  greater  sorrow  in  my 
manly  life  than  this.  "I  behave  myself  as  though  he 
had  been  my  friend  or  brother;  I  bow  down  heavily,  as 
one  that  mourneth  for  his  mother."  And  all  this  sensi- 
bility I  know  you  are  sharing  with  me. 

The  feeling  which  rests  on  each  mind  and  heart  to- 


62  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

day  is  not  a  simple  feeling.  To  us  all  it  is,  in  gome 
measure,  unde6ned.  I  cannot  be  of  any  real  help  to 
you,  I  fear,  save  in  the  way  of  giving  you  an  analysis 
of  your  grief,  and  suggesting  the  form  of  its  expression. 

I.  Let  me  say,  then,  that  in  this  complex  mourning  of 
heart,  is  found,  first  of  all,  our  admiration  of  that  great 
man's  character,  whose  sudden  death  has  saddened  the 
entire  nation.  Surely,  you  will  not  need  that  I  enter 
into  argument  to  prove  that  these  words  of  the  text 
that  I  have  chosen,  applied  to  the  counselor  from  Ari- 
mathea  in  the  inspired  record,  are  most  fitting  when 
applied  to  our  late  Chief  Magistrate. 

He  was  "a  good  man."  Called  by  the  great  voice  of 
the  American  people  to  leave  his  rural  home,  and  as- 
sume the  highest  honors  it  could  confer,  his  parting 
request  to  his  old  friends  and  neighbors  was  only  for 
their  continuous  prayers.  With  the  sincerest  humility, 
he  accepted  his  place  as  the  minister  of  the  nation,  and 
the  servant  of  God.  He  had  no  higher  ambition  than 
to  know  his  duty  and  perform  it.  He  felt  himself  swept 
out  into  the  current  of  a  purpose,  as  majestic  in 
grandeur  as  it  was  celestial  in  origin ;  the  sublime  pur- 
pose of  Him  to  whom  nations  belong,  to  care  for  this 
western  Republic  in  the  hour  of  its  manifest  peril. 
From  that  day  to  this,  he  has  never  swerved  from  the 
line  of  his  integrity.  No  man  has  ever  been  maligned 
as  he  has;  no  man  has  ever  outlived  abuse  as  he  has. 
When  the  nation  shall  have  laid  his  remains  in  the 
burial  yard  of  the  village  where  he  lived,  there  will 
never  be  heard  a  hiss  by  his  tombstone,  there  will  be 
no  trail  of  any  serpent  across  his  grave.  Even  now 
we  have  hardly  ceased  to  hear  the  dignified  tones  of  his 
voice,  wonderfully  pathetic,  almost  prophetic,  as  he  told 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  63 

us,  in  the  second  inaugural  address,  of  the  simplicity 
of  his  faith,  the  humility  of  his  estimate  of  himself,  and 
his  profound  reliance  upon  the  infinite  God. 

He  was  a  "just"  man.  Through  all  these  years  it  has 
been  touching  to  notice  how  implicitly  the  true-hearted 
believed  Abraham  Lincoln  to  be  true.  The  mean  hire- 
lings of  place,  and  the  mere  parasites  of  office,  kept  out 
of  his  way.  The  demagogues  and  partisans  grew  pas- 
sionate over  his  perversity  to  their  principles,  and 
called  him  an  impracticable  leader,  because  of  his  stead- 
fast loyalty  to  truth  and  fairness  as  between  man  and 
man.  When  one  received  injustice,  and  could  not,  in 
the  confusion  of  the  times,  make  his  righteousness 
appear,  how  instinctively  he  thought  of  the  President, 
and  knew,  if  he  could  only  have  a  hearing  from  him, 
all  would  be  well.  When  military  commanders  failed, 
and  popular  clamor  was  raised  under  the  dangerous 
disappointment,  calmly  and  generously  the  good  man 
waited  until  they  should  make  another  trial.  He  stood 
true  to  those  who  were  seeking  to  undermine  his  power, 
with  a  magnanimity  sublime.  Oh,  the  patience  of  that 
great,  kind  heart  in  the  days  when  it  cost  something 
to  be  considerate!  And  now,  after  the  smoke  has 
cleared  away  from  two  political  battle-fields,  fought 
more  savagely  than  any  other  such  in  our  history, 
there  comes  to  view  no  one  act  of  his  at  which  a  citizen 
will  blush.  His  sun  went  down  while  to  us  it  yet 
seemed  day ;  but  at  the  evening  time  it  was  light.  He 
died  at  the  height  of  his  fame.  All  rancor  of  party 
has  disappeared.  The  clouds  that  dimmed  his  noon 
gather  now,  at  the  twilight,  to  glow  in  his  praise. 

So  much  then,  is  true;  "he  was  a  good  man,  and  a 
just."     But  there  is  a  question,  which  our  intelligent 


G4  LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDPJ:SSES 

Bible-reading  people  are  wont  to  ask,  when  any  one  of 
their  great  men  dies — was  he  a  Christian  man?  There 
is  no  reason  why  we  shonld  turn  away,  unanswered, 
an  inquiry  like  this.  It  is  not  an  imi)ertinent  and 
obtrusive  investigation  of  his  interior  life.  He  made 
no  mystery  of  his  faith.  His  own  tale  of  his  religious 
experience  is  something  like  thi»— coming  in  more  than 
one  way,  and  attested  with  more  than  one  witness : 

"When  I  left  Springfield,  I  felt  my  utter  dependence 
upon  God.  The  responsibility  weighed  heavily  upon 
my  heart.  I  knew  I  should  fail  without  a  divine  help. 
But  I  was  not  then  a  Christian.  When  my  child  died, 
I  felt  that  I  needed  the  comfort  of  the  gospel.  It  was 
the  severest  affliction  that  ever  fell  upon  me.  Then 
I  wanted  to  be  a  Christian.  But  never  did  I  feel  that 
I  reached  the  point,  till  I  wandered  one  day,  alone, 
among  the  graves  of  the  boys  that  fell  at  Gettysburg. 
There,  when  I  read  the  inscriptions,  so  full  of  hope  and 
faith,  I  began  to  think  I  loved  and  trusted  Jesus  as  my 
Saviour." 

Thus,  our  image  of  this  humble,  noble  man,  rises 
on  our  vision  complete.  Gifted  with  great  intellectual 
power;  proverbial  for  his  rectitude;  bearing  "honest" 
for  his  title  as  Aristides  bore  "just"  for  his ;  affection- 
ate, with  all  the  instincts  of  common  humanity,  even 
to  the  lowest;  fearless  and  brave;  he  added  the  crown- 
ing grace  to  his  memory  with  his  unaffected  piety  as  a 
Christian. 

II.  For  all  this  the  nation  mourns  his  loss.  But  I 
am  not  mistaken  in  believing  there  is  an  element  in  our 
sorrow  here  to-day,  far  more  subtle  and  experimental 
than  mere  admiration  of  his  spotless  character.  There 
is^  in  the  second  place,  a  feeling  of  personal  bereave- 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  65 

ment.  Singularly  identified  with  us  all  lias  this  man 
come  to  be.  Test  your  heart  now.  Tell  me,  of  all  the 
leaders  in  civil  life,  of  all  the  commanders  in  the  field, 
who  has  the  hold  upon  your  manly  affections  that  this 
great-hearted  man  of  the  people  had?  Your  ideal  of 
him  was  like  that  of  a  relative — one  of  your  household. 
Never,  till  the  hand  of  an  assassin  struck  him,  did  you 
know  how  dear  he  was.  I  see,  in  all  this,  that  which 
makes  me  happy  and  hopeful;  here  is  a  token  of  the 
infinite  capacities  of  tenderness  in  the  spirit  of  the 
American  people. 

I  think  to-dav,  as  the  fearful  news  is  flashed  across 
the  land,  of  the  families  that  live  in  the  valleys,  and 
among  the  hills,  and  over  the  prairies,  to  some  member 
of  which  he  has  been  kind,  and  so  has  endeared  himself 
to  all.  How  they  will  weep  as  for  a  brother  beloved ! 
Village  bells  are  knelling  all  over  the  continent.  A 
great  hand  waved  darkly  across  the  landscape,  and 
swooped  the  banners  down  from  exultation  into  grief. 
Oh,  we  have  never  known  how  many  letters  his  own 
pen  has  written  to  bereaved  wives  and  mourning  moth- 
ers! When  news  of  a  terrible  death  in  many  an  in- 
conspicuous household  was  to  be  communicated,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  took  time,  from  his  few 
hours  of  privacy,  to  send  an  epistle,  so  generous,  so 
full  of  grateful  sympathy,  so  gentle  and  appreciative, 
that  the  wounded  hearts  felt  soothed,  and  bore  the 
bereavement  without  breaking.  He  knew  how  to  say 
kind  things  so  well,  and  loved  to  say  them! 

I  think  of  the  soldiers,  also,  whose  interests  he 
watched  like  a  jealous  parent.  In  these  trying  times 
of  partisanship  and  confusion  there  was  always  a  like- 
lihood of  haste,  and  consequent  injustice,  in  the  admin- 


66  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

istration  of  military  tribunals.  Many  a  man,  inno- 
cent of  alleged  inadvertence  or  crime,  was  unable  to 
show  it,  and  so  was  in  peril  of  shame  or  death.  Pa- 
tiently that  busy  President  studied  out  complicated 
accounts;  bent  all  his  legal  ability  to  the  investigation 
of  contradictory  testimony;  read  the  long,  tedious 
documents  on  either  side;  simply  determined  that  every 
man  should  get  his  due ;  and  then,  beyond  that,  as  much 
leniency  as  was  safe  to  give  him.  How  the  soldiers 
loved  him!  They  are  telling  to  each  other,  this  very 
day,  stories  of  his  kindness  to  them.  Only  last  week 
he  spent  the  day  that  remained  to  him  in  Richmond, 
going  through  the  wards  of  the  hospitals,  saluting,  with 
his  warm-hearted  grasp,  each  wounded  hero  in  turn; 
and,  when  they  had  no  hands  to  offer,  he  laid  his  big 
palm  on  their  foreheads,  and  thanked  them  in  the  name 
of  the  country! 

I  think,  more  than  all,  of  the  poor  freedmen,  when 
they  hear  of  the  President's  death.  How  they  will 
wonder  and  will  wail !  They  called  him  "Father,"  as 
if  it  were  part  of  his  name.  Oh,  they  believed  in  Abra- 
ham Lincoln !  They  expected  him  as  the  Israelites  did 
Moses.  Some,  no  doubt,  imagined  he  was  a  deity. 
They  were  unsophisticated  and  ignorant,  and  that  good, 
kind  man  seemed  so  like  a  being  from  heaven.  They 
said  he  would  come.  They  prayed  he  would  come. 
They  waited  for  him  to  come.  And  then  he  came! 
When  those  untutored  sons  of  slavery  saw  him  in  the 
streets  of  the  rebel  capital,  after  its  capture,  they  fairly 
blasphemed  without  being  aware  of  it.  He  seemed  to 
them  and  their  children  a  second  Messiah.  He  never 
broke  a  promise  to  their  hope.  When  they  were  certain 
he  had  uttered  one  word  they  rested  on  it,  as  they 


CHAKLES  S.  EOBINSON  67 

would  on  God's.  He  stood  by  the  poor  creatures  his 
hand  had  freed,  under  all  obloquy  and  suspicion.  He 
put  his  signature  to  a  parchment  that  made  them  men 
and  women  with  souls  and  bodies.  Then  the  enfran- 
chised millions  opened  their  very  souls  to  him,  as  if  out 
under  the  sunshine.  His  name  was  a  spell  to  quiet  or 
to  rouse  them.  What  will  they  do,  now  he  is  dead? 
Alas!  alas!  for  the  weeping  and  the  wonder  they  will 
have,  when  they  know  how  he  died! 

Thus,  we  all  weep  together.  Christian  resignation 
offers  its  high  consolations,  and  we  have  no  spirit  of 
murmuring  or  complaint.  Yet  none  of  us  will  deny 
that  this  is  the  severest  blow,  which,  as  a  great  people, 
we  have  ever  received.  The  nation  has,  twice  before, 
lost  its  Chief  Magistrate  by  death;  but  there  has  been 
no  mourning  like  this  to-day. 

III.  A  third  element  in  our  grief,  under  this  afflicted 
dispensation  of  Providence,  is  the  fear  of  impending 
calamity.  It  is  impossible  to  free  our  minds  of  the 
deepest  solicitude  for  the  future.  Alas!  we  say,  for 
the  nation  bereaved  of  its  pilot  when  out  in  the  midst 
of  such  a  sea  as  this!  Palinurus  has  been  suddenly 
swept,  by  a  wave,  from  the  helm. 

I  suppose  this  anxiety  is  natural ;  and  yet,  I  am  sure, 
it  is  needless.  Difficult  questions  are  coming  up.  The 
practical  wisdom  of  our  recognized  leader  was  cutting 
knots  which  men's  perversity  kept  tying.  We  trusted 
him.  We  were  knitting  ourselves  together  in  closer 
confidence  in  his  decisions.  That  shrewd,  native  judg- 
ment, that  clear-sighted  penetration,  that  incorruptible 
integrity — oh,  how  we  used  to  throw  ourselves  back 
upon  qualities  like  these,  and  feel  secure!  We  found 
fault  with  him  more  than  once ;  but,  eventually,  he  was 


68  LINCOLN  MEMORL^L  ADDRESSES 

justified  in  his  course.  We  said  he  was  slow;  but  he 
went  as  fast  as  God  did.  He  reasoned  with  logic  that 
events  taught  him.  We  were  inordinately  cast  down, 
under  defeat ;  he  kept  us  cheerful.  We  grew  boisterous 
under  victory;  he  was  calm  himself,  but  glad  to  have  us 
so  happy.  He  was  never  disheartened,  never  unduly 
elated.  When  he  failed,  he  became  humbler;  when  he 
succeeded  he  thanked  God.  When  the  way  was  open 
he  was  as  alert  as  anybody ;  when  the  way  was  hedged 
up,  he  was  strong  enough  to  sit  still.  By  and  by  we 
learned  to  know  him  well  and  rest  in  him  sublimely. 
Meantime  he  urged  us  to  look  beyond  him.  He  made 
us  devout.  Put  a  man  on  the  busiest  street-corner,  and 
let  him  keep  looking  upward,  and  he  will  gather  a 
crowd  that  will  all  be  looking  upward.  So  our  Presi- 
dent gave  unaffected  praise  to  God  until  we  all  began 
to  sing  with  him.  Spectacles  like  these,  which  have 
been  witnessed  daily,  have  never  been  known  in  this 
land  before;  Mammon  has  learned  the  doxologies  be- 
longing to  God. 

When  such  a  leader  is  taken  suddenly  away,  there 
is  nothing  unphilosophical  in  the  feeling  of  utter  dis- 
may and  apprehension  that  men  are  apt  to  experience. 
But  in  our  case,  all  this  is  needless.  My  brethren,  I 
commend  to  your  calm  consideration  one  solemn 
thought  concerning  the  lessons  of  all  history.  Men 
are  nothing  but  instruments  in  the  hands  of  their 
Maker  in  working  out  his  purposes.  Just  as  a  sculptor 
needs  now  a  chisel,  now  a  file,  now  a  graver,  and  never 
thinks  he  must  apologize  or  explain  to  us,  who  stand 
by  to  watch  him,  why  he  drops  one  tool  or  takes  up 
another;  for  he  is  making  a  statue,  which  he  intends 
for  a  worthy  immortality — so  the  all-wise  God,  carry- 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  69 

ing  out  his  vast  plans,  assumes  one  man  and  lays  aside 
another,  and  never  answers  any  of  our  curious  ques- 
tions, while  his  "eternal  Thought  moves  on  his  undis- 
turbed affairs."  We  are  to  blame  seriously  if  we  allow 
ourselves  to  be  depressed  with  forebodings.  God's 
rule,  in  all  this  four  years'  war,  has  been  to  bring  to 
naught  the  things  that  are,  not  by  the  things  that  are, 
but  by  the  things  that  are  not.  We  have  lived  under 
the  unvarying  discipline  of  surprise.  By  this  time  we 
ought  to  have  learned  our  lesson. 

With  courage  undiminished,  therefore,  let  us  believe 
that  God  will  fit  this  coming  man  for  the  duties  of  his 
unexpected  oflBce.  Be  on  the  alert  now  for  the  discov- 
ery of  some  new  purpose.  The  infinite  plans  of  the 
Almighty  are  shifting  their  phase  for  some  disclosure 
that  will  relieve  our  embarrassment.  It  is  expedient 
that  even  such  offenses  as  these  should  come.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  God  means  to  make  good  out  of 
this  evil.  And  the  question  is  this :  Will  you  and  I  be 
quiet  in  all  the  pain  of  our  bereavement,  if  we  are  only 
sure  that  the  event  will  be  overruled  to  the  benefit  of 
the  cause,  the  race,  the  nation?  Will  we  accept  the 
counsel  of  Caiaphas  as  possibly  adapted  to  our  crisis: 
''Ye  know  nothing  at  all ;  nor  consider  that  it  is  expe- 
dient that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people,  and  that 
the  whole  nation  perish  not?"  Perhaps,  in  this  very 
alarm  for  the  future,  there  will  be  found  a  healthier 
spirit  for  us  all. 

IV.  For  in  the  fourth  place,  I  remark,  we  find  as  an 
element  in  our  mourning  to-day,  a  deep-seated  indigna- 
tion at  the  horrible  crime  which  has  been  committed. 
Humanity  sickens  and  shudders  at  the  diabolical  in- 
genuity, the  malignant  hatred,  of  this  culminating  act 


70  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

of  the  rebellion.  If  there  ever  was  a  time  in  which  to 
obey  the  command,  "Be  ye  angry,  and  sin  not,"  that 
time  has  come  now.  "There  was  no  such  deed  done  nor 
seen  from  the  day  that  the  children  of  Israel  came  up 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  unto  this  day;  consider  of  it, 
take  advice,  and  speak  your  minds." 

Let  a  vast  public  sentiment  be  aroused  and  organ- 
ized, that  shall  exhibit  this  vile  wickedness  in  its  true 
light.  Let  us  invoke  Christendom  to  make  it  an  eternal 
hissing.  With  a  recoil  of  feeling  so  violent  that  it 
wearies  my  will,  and  shocks  my  very  being,  with  utter- 
most loathing  for  an  offense  so  abominable;  seeing  in 
it  that  keen,  fine  relish  of  depravity  that  marks  it  not 
only  as  devilish,  but  one  of  the  master-works  of  the 
prince  of  devils,  I  stand  simply  appalled — wondering 
with  unspeakable  wonder  how  it  can  be  accepted  by 
any  creature  wearing  the  form  of  civilized  humanity! 
It  is  an  outrage  on  the  community,  whose  tolerance  it 
defies.  It  is  an  insult  to  decency,  a  rebuke  to  forbear- 
ance, an  offense  unto  God.  It  is  without  the  power  of 
language  to  reach  the  condemnation  it  merits.  The 
words  of  denunciation  die  on  my  lips  in  their  own 
feebleness.  It  is  with  an  affecting  sense  of  gratitude  to 
God  that  I  discover  the  positive  poverty  of  my  mother- 
tongue  in  epithets  of  vileness  befitting  its  description. 
As  much  as  in  you  is,  live  peaceably  with  all  men; 
but  there  ought  to  be  a  voice  of  opinion  so  stern,  so  out- 
spoken, that  no  man  of  credited  decency  should  stand 
tamely  by  and  hear  a  crime,  so  unparalleled  in  its  base- 
ness, even  extenuated. 

Is  the  world  going  back  into  savagery?  Is  this  Chris- 
tian land  to  become  the  rival  of  Dahomey?  This  is  no 
isolated  act.    The  history  of  this  slaveholder's  rebellion 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  71 

is  full  of  such.  Again  and  again  have  the  lives  of  our 
chief  men  been  threatened  with  the  dirk,  the  bullet, 
and  the  knife.  Poison  has  been  put  in  their  food. 
Their  homes  have  been  entered  by  spies.  Their  steps 
have  been  waylaid  in  the  streets.  And  our  common 
people  have  fared  no  better.  Quiet  villages  have  been 
invaded,  and  women  and  children  shot  down  with  fiend- 
ish glee.  Cars,  crowded  with  unsuspicious  travelers, 
have  been  thrown  from  the  track.  Public  buildings 
have  been  fired  over  a  whole  city  at  once.  And  all  this 
under  the  shadow  of  authority  claimed  through  a  paper 
commission.  Yet  the  nation  has  kept  its  temper.  The 
spectacle  of  a  great  people,  thus  outraged  beyond  a 
parallel,  yet  so  patient  and  forbearing,  has  been  sub- 
lime enough  to  make  our  enemies  wonder.  They  have 
called  our  magnanimity  meanness,  and  complimented 
us  upon  our  manifold  spaniel-like  virtues,  with  sar- 
casm that  burned  in  upon  manly  sensibility  like  fire. 

This  assassination  is  the  earliest  reply  which  chiv- 
alry has  had  to  make  to  forbearance  unmeasured  and 
friendliness  almost  fraternal.  Now,  let  us  have  done 
with  it !  Talk  to  me  no  more  of  "our  misguided  breth- 
ren." Some  are  misguided — and  it  is  those  who  mis- 
guide them  I  denounce.  Cain  was  brother  to  Abel. 
Relationship  is  a  perilous  thing  when  it  says,  "Art  thou 
in  health,  my  brother,"  and  then  stabs  under  the  fifth 
rib.  Talk  to  me  no  more  of  the  "same  race,  educated 
at  the  same  colleges,  born  of  the  same  blood."  Satan 
was  of  the  same  race  as  Gabriel,  and  educated  at  the 
same  celestial  school  of  love  and  grace;  but  one  became 
a  rebel,  and  between  them  ever  thereafter  was  "a  great 
gulf  fixed."  He  cannot  be  brother  of  mine,  he  belongs 
to  no  race  of  mine,  who,  in  the  foul  cause  of  human 


72  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

bondage,  fights  with  a  rural  massacre,  makes  war  with 
midnight  arson  and  crowns  his  unmanly  barbarity  with 
stabbing  a  sick  man  in  his  bed,  and  shooting  an  un- 
armed husband  in  the  very  sight  of  his  wife. 

Let  no  one  deem  this  violence  unnecessary.  They 
tell  us  that  none  of  our  utterances  are  lost;  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  air  on  which  they  fall  perpetuate  them  into 
an  eternity  of  circles,  spreading  wider  and  wider.  If 
I  am  ever  again  to  meet  these  denunciations  of  mine, 
conscientiously  spoken  in  this  Christian  pulpit,  let  me 
find  them  in  company  with  a  declaration  that  will  ex- 
plain them.  There  are,  in  this  community,  to-day,  men 
and  women — God  forgive  them! — nurtured  under  the 
hot  debasements  and  vile  luxuries  of  the  slave  system, 
sojourning  here  on  our  charitable  sufferance,  in  order 
meanly  to  escape  the  perils  of  the  ruinous  war  they 
have  helped  to  incite,  who  clap  their  hands  in  applause 
of  this  murder!  I  think,  in  serious  self-defense,  we 
are  to  see  that  this  thing  is  ended.  This  wickedness 
clamors  for  retributive  judgment,  and  invokes  the 
wrath  of  God. 

V.  Thus  I  am  led,  naturally,  to  speak  of  a  fifth 
element  in  our  feeling  of  mourning  to-day;  the  pro- 
found conviction  of  necessity  that  the  law  of  the  land 
should  now  take  its  course  in  relation  to  all  the  aiders 
and  abettors  of  this  infamous  rebellion.  There  was, 
perhaps,  needed  one  more  proof  of  the  unutterable  sin 
of  treason.  Here  has  it  been  flashed  out  upon  us,  like 
the  final  stroke  of  a  departing  thunderstorm,  the  least 
expected,  but  the  most  fearfully  destructive  of  all  that 
have  fallen.  We  have  been  growing  more  and  more 
loose  in  our  estimates  of  guilt.  We  were  catching  from 
each  other  a  spirit  of  sentimentalism  that  boded  no 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  73 

good.  Tired  of  war,  longing  for  quiet,  eager  for  trade, 
sickened  with  bloodshed,  we  were  ready  to  say,  let  the 
criminals  be  pardoned,  let  the  penalties  of  law  be 
remitted.  The  next  act  in  our  national  history  was,  in 
all  likelihood,  to  be  a  general  amnesty  proclamation. 
Suddenly,  the  hand  which  would  have  signed  it  was 
smitten  down  into  death.  Then  our  eyes  were  opened 
to  the  fixed,  unalterable  malignity  in  the  temper  of  our 
foes.  A  great  conspiracy  is  disclosed.  Murder  is  done 
at  the  capital.  Our  beloved  President  becomes  a  victim 
to  the  very  magnanimity  he  was  inculcating.  Warned 
fully  of  the  peril,  he  would  not  believe  human  nature 
could  be  so  base.  He  trusted,  and  was  betrayed.  The 
entire  government  was  menaced,  in  the  moment  of  its 
open-hearted  proffer  of  good  will. 

We  are  satisfied  that  all  this  is  perilous  pusillan- 
imity now.  There  is  no  fitness  of  generosity  to  malig- 
nants  venomous  as  these.  So,  while  our  hearts  are 
chilled,  their  affections  hurried  back  on  themselves  in 
curdling  horror,  with  pity  ineffable,  and  sorrow  that 
cannot  be  repressed,  we  are  united  in  saying,  let  the 
will  of  the  law  be  done!  When  there  was  a  rebellion 
in  heaven,  the  rebels  were  punished.  God  sent  the 
fallen  angels  to  hell.  We  are  not  to  find  fault  with 
that  kind  of  administration.  Men  can  forgive.  I  do 
not  believe  there  is  one  unkind  sentiment  in  any  heart 
in  the  house  of  God  this  day.  We  draw  a  distinc- 
tion, world-wide,  between  a  crime  and  a  criminal.  The 
one  we  denounce,  the  other  we  pity.  But  the  majesty 
of  law  must  be  vindicated.  No  puritan  had  a  right  to 
be  the  defender  of  Guy  Fawkes.  No  patriot  had  a 
right  to  screen  Benedict  Arnold  from  justice.  Let 
there  be  now  no  violence.     Let  the  common  people  be 


74  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

spared.  But,  on  the  track  of  the  villains  that  have 
opened  this  insurrection,  and  urged  it  along  its  bloody 
track  even  to  this  dreadful  consummation,  let  the  foot- 
steps of  justice  follow  swiftly,  relentlessly. 

It  may,  possibly,  be  said,  by  some,  that  this  assassina- 
tion of  the  officers  of  government  is  a  mere  act  of  mad- 
ness, done  by  a  brace  of  frantic  fanatics ;  and  that  it  is 
not  equitable  and  fair  to  hold  a  whole  people  respon- 
sible for  its  wickedness. 

Let  it  be  said,  in  reply,  that  the  tidings  of  this 
murder,  going  into  the  ranks  of  rebellion,  will  be  hailed 
with  a  howl  of  gladness  and  satisfaction,  equal  to  the 
yell  in  Pandemoniuip,  when  Satan  seduced  Adam,  and 
buried  a  race  in  ruin.  It  will  never  be  disowned,  save 
by  a  few  of  the  most  exposed  leaders,  who,  seeing  in  it 
their  own  ruin,  will  repent,  not  like  Peter,  for  sin,  but 
Judas,  for  the  results  of  sin.  Even  now,  the  instincts 
of  every  rebel  sympathizer  are  on  the  alert  to  befriend 
the  assassins,  and  block  the  way  of  justice.  Further- 
more, let  it  be  said,  that  this  crime  happens  to  be  con- 
spicuous and  heartrending,  because  it  has  marked  the 
nation's  idol  for  its  victim;  but  it  is  only  one  of  fifty 
thousand  murders,  actual,  intelligent,  committed  dur- 
ing the  last  two  years  by  the  parties  in  power  through 
the  revolted  States.  And  these  murders  in  the  prisons 
are,  every  one  of  them,  just  so  much  the  more  diabol- 
ical, as  starvation  slowly  is  more  horrible  than  the 
quicker  death  of  the  bullet.  The  spirit  is  the  same  in 
all  cases.  This  wickedness  is  the  legitimate  outgrowth 
of  that  system  of  slavery  which  originated  the  rebel- 
lion and  debauched,  from  time  immemorial,  all  the 
finer  instincts  of  man. 

Hence,  there  is  no  revenge  in  the  popular  heart  to- 


CHARLES  S.  EOBINSON  75 

day,  but  only  retribution.  We  pity  the  malefactors; 
we  pray  for  them;  but  in  this  determination  we  are 
fixed — let  the  majesty  of  the  law  be  vindicated  upon 
them  as  traitors;  let  justice  pursue  them,  one  by  one; 
let  the  gates  of  the  world  be  closed  to  their  search  for 
asylum;  let  judgment  follow  on  as  implacable  as  doom. 

VI.  I  might  well  pause  here,  in  the  enumeration  of 
elements  in  the  feeling  we  are  all  cherishing  under  the 
pressure  of  this  heartrending  sorrow.  But  there  is  one 
more,  which  I  detect  in  my  own  heart,  and  know  is  in 
the  hearts  of  my  hearers.  We  desire  to  know  what 
instruction  the  all-wise  God  has  intended  us  to  receive. 
We  would  inquire  for  his  counsels,  and  humbly  learn 
of  him.  My  oflSce,  as  a  Christian  minister,  will  be  dis- 
charged this  morning,  when  I  have  sought  to  point  out 
to  you  some  few  of  the  lessons  forced  into  vivid  illu- 
mination by  this  terrible  dispensation  of  Providence. 

1.  First  of  all,  then,  let  us  learn  here  how  history  is 
composed.  I  am  certain  we  have  no  proper  conception 
of  the  magnitude  of  an  event  like  this.  We  are  too 
near  it  to  discover  its  proportions.  Travelers  tell  us 
they  are  always  disappointed  with  the  earliest  glimpse 
of  vast  mountains.  Standing  close  under  the  shadow 
of  awful  forms,  so  peerless  in  majesty,  they  have 
no  adequate  notions  of  their  loftiness  and  amazing 
mass.  These  need  distance  on  the  landscape  to  be  truly 
appreciated.  So  an  event  like  this  is  never  really 
reverenced  as  it  should  be.  It  needs  time  for  the  free 
play  of  the  imagination.  We  are  all  unconscious  of  the 
spectacle  we  are  to  present  to  posterity. 

The  dreadful  deed,  which  has  filled  our  minds  with 
horror,  will  be  a  growing  vision  of  weird  wickedness, 
shining  with  a  strange  luridness  of  its  own,  as  one  of 


76  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  wildest  tragedies  of  the  world's  most  unwelcome 
remembrance.  It  ranks  with  the  suicide  of  Cleopatra, 
the  death  of  Cuesar,  the  murder  of  William  the  Silent, 
the  conspiracy  of  Catiline,  the  gunpowder  plot  of  Guy 
Fawkes,  the  imperial  incidents  in  the  wide  empire  of 
crime.  To  us  the  event  seems  simply  personal ;  our 
views  of  it  are  necessarily  narrow.  Our  leader  has 
fallen.  Our  Government  has  been  menaced.  But  we 
only  speculate  upon  its  immediate  results.  The  crim- 
inals will  soon  be  apprehended.  The  insurrection  will 
end,  and  all  the  excitement  will  subside.  But  when 
the  mighty  future  shall  receive  the  inheritance,  it  will 
be  weighed  by  other  balances,  and  estimated  more  truly. 
Thus  history  selects  and  perpetuates  its  own  mate- 
rials. Each  thought,  each  word,  each  deed,  each  flash 
of  sentiment,  each  outbreak  of  passion,  each  exercise  of 
influence,  enters  into  the  grand  aggregate  of  human 
recollection  and  intelligence,  which  we  call  our  Age. 
Out  of  this  the  pen  of  unerring  history  compiles  its 
annals. 

For  Humanity  sweeps  onward ;  where  to-day  the  martyr  stands. 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas,  with  the  silver  in  his  hands; 
Far  in  front  the  cross  stands  ready,  and  the  crackling  fagots 

burn. 
While  the  hooting  mob  of  yesterday  in  silent  awe  return 
To  glean  up  the  scattered  ashes  into  History's  golden  urn. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  let  us  learn  the  essential 
iniquity  and  barbarism  there  is  in  any  system  of  human 
oppression.  It  was  long  ago  remarked  by  Lamartine 
that  no  man  ever  bound  a  chain  around  the  neck  of  his 
fellowman  without  God's  binding  a  chain  of  equal 
links  around  his  own.  Whoever  debases  the  image  of 
God    will    certainly   become   debased.     This   thought 


CHAELES  S.  ROBINSON  77 

receives  an  illustration  here  that  amounts  almost  to 
a  demonstration.  This  crime  is  the  manifest  outshoot 
of  American  slavery. 

I  suppose  no  one  remains  now  who  doubts  that  all 
this  aggregated  mass  of  abomination,  this  summation 
of  villainies,  whose  tide  of  murky  violence  is  rolling 
itself  along  before  our  weary  eyes,  had  its  fountain- 
head  in  the  malignant  ambition  of  a  few  men,  who 
started  the  stream  of  revolution  in  order  to  waft  them- 
selves into  continuous  power.  These  miserable  crim- 
inals, whom  justice  is  pursuing  with  eager  scent,  are 
but  the  merest  minute-hands  on  the  outermost  dial  of 
that  popular  sentiment  which  they  represent.  The 
spring  that  has  set  them  in  motion,  the  mechanism  that 
gave  them  all  their  power,  even  the  delicate  balances 
that  have  timed  their  present  success,  are  out  of  sight, 
yet  easily  discoverable  in  the  dark  intricacies  of  that 
domestic  and  political  life  based  on  the  humiliation  of 
a  feebler  race.  You  may  tear  these  index-pointers 
away,  but  the  clock-work  will  run  on.  There  will  still 
remain  the  secret  progress  of  debasement,  on  the  bold 
face  of  which  they  have  happened  to  become  conspicu- 
ous. You  will  gain  nothing  till  you  tear  the  hideous 
system  to  pieces,  and  break  the  spring  that  lies  coiled 
within  it. 

What  is  this  crime?  Nothing  new  surely;  only  more 
public.  It  is  one  of  a  million  crimes,  each  of  which 
God  has  seen.  The  same  reckless  imperiousness  of  will, 
that  has  so  many  times  struck  at  laws,  has  now  struck 
at  the  Executive  of  law — that  is  all.  The  same 
thwarted  passion,  that  has  more  than  once  shot  a  slave 
unpunished,  now  has  shot  a  President — that  is  all.  The 
same  spirit  is  unsubdued.    It  is  ready  to  fly  in  the  face 


78  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

of  anything  that  stands  in  its  way.  To  continue  a 
system  of  social  life  that  now  has  become  a  necessity  in 
a  measure,  as  a  minister  to  laziness  and  lust,  these 
people  have  dismembered  the  church,  divided  the  re- 
public, fought  their  own  brothers,  and  at  last  taken 
to  murder  and  assassination.  No  one  can  fail  to  see 
that  there  is  one  single  line  of  connection  running  all 
through  the  history  of  this  infamous  rebellion.  The 
pride  of  power,  engendered  by  the  tyranny,  petty  at 
first,  over  the  unprotected  black  race,  has  betrayed 
these  miserable  wretches  into  the  mistake  of  supposing 
they  could  lord  it  over  the  white  race — that  is  all. 

This  latest  crime  is  more  showy,  but  the  hearts  are 
no  blacker  than  before.  And  the  hearts  have  been  made 
black  by  the  system.  How  else  will  you  explain  this 
appalling  fact;  there  are  women,  with  babes  in  their 
arms,  who  will  declare  that  this  murder  in  cold  blood 
of  a  man  in  the  presence  of  his  wife  is  chivalrous! 
This  is  monstrous,  when  judged  by  any  system  of  phil- 
osophy. There  is  but  one  solution  of  the  mystery: 
underlying  all  the  ferocity  of  such  a  sentiment  is  found 
the  subtle  working  of  mere  pride  of  caste.  Slavery  has 
debased  the  feminine  and  human  sentiments  with  which 
they  were  born.  That  code  of  morals  always  did  tend 
to  barbarism.  The  young  men  of  the  South  were  cor- 
rupt before  the  war.  The  women  were  brutalized  in 
the  finer  feelings  of  natural  decency.  They  would  send 
women  to  be  stripped  and  whipped  by  men  for  a  price. 
Passion  grows  wild  with  mere  indulgence.  Hence  it 
is  that  a  deed  combining  so  much  of  execrable  mean- 
ness with  so  much  of  hellish  cruelty  find  women  un- 
sexed  enough  to  applaud  it!  Home  on  the  diabolical 
system  it  represents  do  I  soberly  urge  the  responsi- 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  79 

bility  of  this  murder.     It  is  high  time  to  have  done 
with  it,  root  and  branches. 

3.  Once  more :  Let  us  learn  here  to-day  the  power  of 
martyrdom  in  fixing  great  principles.  President  Lin- 
coln has  been  useful  in  his  life  far  beyond  what  falls 
to  the  common  lot  of  even  the  most  patriotic  and  public- 
spirited  men.  But  his  death  has  confirmed  his  useful- 
ness— made  it  illustrious,  influential,  and  immortal. 

In  the  natural  course  of  time  his  period  of  official 
service  would  have  ended.  His  administration  of  the 
government  would  have  been  canvassed  cautiously,  and, 
perhaps,  uncharitably  criticized,  and,  by  some  parties, 
condemned.  By  this  sudden,  tragic  close  of  it,  how- 
ever, it  has  been  forced  into  prominence.  It  will  now 
be  marked  forever.  All  the  principles  it  has  aimed  to 
establish  are  settled  hereafter  beyond  a  peradventure. 
The  documents  he  has  added  to  the  archives  of  the 
nation  are  sealed  with  blood.  This  republic  will  take 
no  step  backwards  from  the  vantage-ground  to  which 
he  had  led  the  banner  of  its  sovereignty.  Even  his 
policy  will  have  weightier  influence  than  that  proposed 
by  any  living  man.  The  noble  archer  has  fallen  in 
death,  before  he  could  really  know  how  princely  were 
the  shots  he  made;  but  the  arrows  he  sped  latest  are 
yet  out  in  the  air,  over  the  sea,  and  will  strike  uner- 
ringly the  mark.  And  when  they  who  stand  nearest  to 
the  spot  where  the  shafts  hang  quivering,  look  around 
to  discover  whose  was  the  sinewy  strength  that  sent 
them  so  forcefully  and  so  true,  they  will  find  that 
another  hand,  just  as  firm,  has  assumed  the  bow,  and 
another  eye,  just  as  keen,  has  discerned  the  same  target. 

They  who   oppose  an   honest  man   living  are  ever 
among  the  first  to  honor  him  dead.     Nobody  dares 


80  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

uproot  a  standard  planted  by  a  loved  leader  who  poured 
out  his  life  at  the  foot  of  its  staff.  Perhaps  it  was  this 
which  was  needed  to  bring  our  people  together  peima- 
nently.  Perhaps  this  was  the  essential  condition  of 
our  restoration  to  unity,  that  we  become  reconciled  over 
an  open  grave.  It  may  be  that  party-spirit  will  yield 
now,  and  bury  the  bitterness  of  its  animosity  in  a 
martyr's  tomb. 

You  will  recall  the  touching  fable  of  Roman  history. 
A  vast  seam  opened  in  the  land,  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  Forum,  disclosing  a  yawning  abyss  which  they  could 
not  fill  with  rocks  or  with  soil.  At  last  the  soothsayers 
declared  that  the  commonwealth  could  be  preserved 
only  by  closing  the  gulf;  and  the  gulf  could  be  closed 
only  by  devoting  to  the  gods,  who  had  opened  it,  what 
constituted  the  principal  glory  and  strength  of  the 
people.  At  this  all  stood  aghast.  But  there  was  one 
Curtius,  a  youth  of  high  birth,  who,  hearing  the  deliver- 
ance, demanded  of  his  countrymen  whether  their  arms 
and  their  courage  were  not  the  most  valuable  posses- 
sions they  owned.  They  gave  him  assent  with  their 
silence.  And  then  the  heroic  warrior  arraying  himself 
in  full  armor,  and  mounting  his  horse,  rode  headlong 
into  the  chasm;  whereupon  the  earth  immediately 
closed,  and  over  the  memorable  spot  swept  a  placid  lake 
bearing  his  name. 

Shall  we  say  that  now  our  divided  country  will  oome 
together  again,  when  he  who  seemed  the  glory  and 
strength  of  the  American  people  has  gone  down  in  the 
breach?  Shall  not  his  sacrifice  avail  for  propitiation 
to  that  foul  spirit  of  sectional  pride  which  rent  the 
land  asunder? 

4.  And  this  leads  me  on  to  mention  a  final  lesson. 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  81 

We  see  now  the  inevitable  triumph  and  perpetuity  of 
our  cause.  We  are  not  hero-worshipers  in  any  degree. 
We  never  were.  But  we  believe  in  God.  We  entered 
upon  this  war  not  willingly,  not  of  our  own  accord. 
We  have  been  fighting  for  a  principle.  That  we  have 
never  surrendered  nor  forgotten.  What  we  loved  this 
leader  for  was  what  we  deemed  truth  to  our  cause. 

What  is  our  cause?  It  is  easier  to  say  what  it  is 
not;  for  its  essence  is  negative.  Whatever  this  crime 
of  assassination  is,  whatever  it  represents,  whatever 
it  aimed  at,  whatever  was  the  spirit  that  prompted  it, 
whatever  may  be  now  wickedly  offered  in  its  apology — 
just  not  that  is  our  cause.  And  as  that  crime,  in  spirit, 
in  purpose,  in  instigation,  was  all  in  the  interest  of 
human  bondage,  so  our  cause  embraces  all  that  is 
antagonistic  to  that  system.  There  never  has  been  but 
one  issue  in  this  terrible  contest.  Underneath  all  these 
evident  questions  has  been  lying  one  which  some  of  us 
studiously  labored  to  ignore;  and  that  was  concerning 
the  dignity  of  universal  labor,  and  the  absolute  equality 
of  all  races  before  the  common  law.  He  who,  at  this 
late  day,  shuts  his  eyes  to  this  fact,  is  neither  intelli- 
gent nor  wise.  We  have  fought  for  an  open  Bible,  a 
free  school,  an  unfettered  press,  and  a  Scriptural  pul- 
pit. 

In  all  the  doctrines  ostentatiously  put  forth  by  our 
foes — States'  rights,  uncontaminated  blood,  family 
pride,  sectional  independence — there  has  ever  been  this 
keen,  sharp  liking  for  slavery  as  a  social  system.  They 
recognized  it  as  a  kind  of  secret  zest  among  themselves ; 
as  voluptuaries  recognize,  with  an  understood  leer,  a 
favorite  lust;  as  wine-bibbers  recognize  the  subtle 
flavor  of  an  indescribable  liquor.    Our  cause  consists 


82  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

in  precise  opposition  to  that.  We,  therefore,  have  stood 
for  the  rights  of  men,  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  the 
principles  of  humanity,  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  the 
power  of  Christian  people  to  govern  themselves,  the 
indefeasible  equality  of  all  the  creatures  of  God  in 
natural  conditions  of  existence,  no  matter  what  may 
be  the  color  of  their  skin.  So  the  nations  of  the  world 
have  looked  upon  us,  and  held  us  responsible.  We  were 
the  enemies  of  all  class-systems,  castes,  and  aristoc- 
racies. We  were  the  champions  of  manhood  in  all  that 
was  noble,  of  womanhood  in  all  that  was  pure.  This 
has  been,  and  still  is,  our  cause. 

And  what  I  call  you  to  learn  now  is,  that  this  cause 
is  safe.  A  martyr's  blood  has  sealed  the  covenant  we 
are  making  with  posterity.  Oh,  the  glories  of  our  im- 
mediate prospect  of  usefulness  in  the  years  to  come! 
The  Republic  is  secure.  The  Union  is  confirmed  as  a 
perpetual  federation  of  States.  The  peril  through 
which  we  have  just  passed  has  no  parallel.  Our  Gov- 
ernment, as  an  entirety,  was  aimed  at  with  one  savage 
blow.  Such  a  stroke,  on  any  other  nation,  would  have 
rocked  Christendom  to  its  center.  Yet  our  nation  is 
untremulous  as  the  primeval  granite.  The  most  deli- 
cate balances  of  commercial  life  show  not  even  the 
semblance  of  noticeable  variation,  even  when  this  vio- 
lence of  a  ton's  weight  all  at  once  jars  the  beam!  Our 
cause  is  eternally  secure! 

Think,  then,  as  we  close  our  meditation  upon  this 
martyr  life,  how  strangely  God  has  overruled  much 
that  seemed  so  destructive  to  our  good.  On  that  very 
day — they  call  it  Good  Friday — there  is  annually  repre- 
sented, in  the  Sistine  Chapel,  at  Rome,  the  disaster  of 
the  world  when  the  Redeemer  was  crucified.    Thirteen 


CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON  83 

lamps  are  lit  in  the  darkness,  ranged  in  pyramidal 
form,  the  topmost  one  conceived  to  be  the  symbol  of 
Messiah.  A  low,  mournful  chant  from  the  Lamenta- 
tions continues  to  echo  through  the  building,  while  one 
light  after  another  is  extinguished  at  intervals  until 
twelve  are  gone  out.  Only  the  loftiest  and  the  brightest 
remains ;  and  still  the  chant  moans  on.  Then  the  last 
one  is  struck,  and  every  glimmer  perishes  in  total 
gloom.  Thereupon  the  music  ends.  A  moment  suc- 
ceeds, of  unutterable  oppression — rayless  and  stifled — 
and  then  one  voice  breaks  the  silence;  a  voice  wailing, 
piercing,  as  if  from  a  crushed  and  broken  heart,  lifting 
the  burden  of  the  Miserere;  the  grief  of  the  race  over 
its  Helper  and  its  Hope. 

Fitting  seems  the  symbol  to  us  now,  as  we  look  only 
on  the  earthly  side  of  this  tremendous  loss;  on  that 
same  day,  while  the  shadows  were  gathering  in  the 
chapel  of  that  seven-hilled  city,  our  light  appeared  to 
go  out,  and  the  nation  was  in  the  gloom. 

But  to-day  let  us  look  on  the  heavenly  side.  How 
sweet  and  calm  it  is  to  think  of  that  great,  brave  heart, 
this  Easter  Sabbath !  He  is  not  here,  but  risen.  Far 
beyond  the  sound  of  battle,  far  beyond  the  turmoil  of 
state,  in  the  infinite  realms  of  gladness,  that  troubled 
mind  has  found  its  rest.  Mourned,  as  never  before 
martyr  was  mourned ;  loved,  as  never  before  statesman 
was  loved;  honored,  as  never  before  patriot  was  hon- 
ored ;  he  has  gone  down  to  a  spotless  grave.  High  over 
all  human  passion  that  disembodied  spirit  stands,  free 
as  the  thought  that  follows  him;  the  eye  of  faith  seems 
to  behold  him  even  now  on  the  radiant  plain  of  eter- 
nity; on  either  side  falls  away  every  official  adornment; 
the  soul  of  the  Christian  man  bends  in  all  humility 


84  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

before  his  Maker's  presence,  saved  by  grace ;  saved,  not 
because  he  wore  the  robes  of  the  highest  station  on  the 
globe;  saved,  not  because  of  his  rare  gifts  of  affection  or 
intellect;  saved,  not  by  reason  of  the  blessed  deeds  he 
had  done;  saved,  merely  because  of  his  faith  in  the 
Saviour  that  he  learned  by  the  graves  of  the  boys  that 
fell  at  Gettysburg;  and  as  you  gaze  after  him,  with  a 
subdued  and  tearful  heart,  you  can  only  pay  him  the 
tribute  that  trembles  on  the  lip  that  speaks  it — "He 

WAS  A  GOOD  MAN^  AND  A  JUSt!" 


REV.  WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON,  D.D. 

"Surely  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  thee:  the  remainder 
of  wrath  shalt  ithou  restrain." — Psa.  76.  10. 

Our  honored,  trusted,  and  beloved  President  is  dead, 
and  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  Can  we  believe  it? 
Can  we  bear  it?  He  has  been  growing  upon  our  con- 
fidence and  affection,  so  constantly  and  so  largely,  that 
it  is  both  a  personal  and  a  national  bereavement ;  it  is 
a  loss  to  each  of  us  and  to  all  of  us.  We  have  lost 
a  friend  who  was  a  father  to  the  humblest  in  the  land, 
and  a  ruler  who  was  the  savior  of  the  country.  I 
have  been  looking  for  comfort  for  myself  and  for  you ; 
I  have  found  it,  and  I  think  you  will,  in  the  familiar, 
but  still  unexhausted  and  inexhaustible  truth  con- 
tained in  the  text.  The  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  God! 
Suppose  it  were  not  so;  that  God  could  not  do  it,  or 
would  not?  What  then?  God  would  not  be  God,  he 
would  not  have  the  power,  or  he  would  not  have  the  love, 
that  is  the  very  essence  of  his  nature.  So  sure  is  the 
doctrine  which  is  the  foundation  of  our  peace  and  hope 
before  God.  "Surely,"  says  the  psalmist,  and  "shall" — 
observe  how  strong  the  words  he  chooses — "Surely  the 
wrath  of  man  shall  praise  thee."  The  latter  clause  is 
susceptible  of  another  and  better  rendering:  "The  re- 
mainder of  wrath  shalt  thou  gird  about  thee."  It  is 
not  that  he  restrains  it;  his  power  and  wisdom  are  still 
more  conspicuous  in  giving  it  license,  and  yet  making 

85 


86  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

it  his  servant.  It  is  not  necessary  for  God  to  restrain 
human  wrath,  as  if  any  parts,  or  consequences  of  it, 
passed  beyond  his  control,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
meet  power  with  power;  but  having  made  men  free,  he 
uses  their  freedom,  so  that  the  remainder  of  wrath,  its 
last  shreds,  he  girds  himself  with,  as  a  man  buckles  his 
sword-belt  around  him.  He  makes  it  his  strength  and 
ornament.  It  is  not  enough  to  say,  human  malice 
effects  nothing  against  God;  it  praises  him,  it  brings 
about  his  purposes,  he  uses  it  as  a  weapon,  it  is  made 
so  subservient  as  to  seem  to  be,  what  the  wisdom  of  God 
forbids  us  to  believe  it  is,  necessary  to  his  glory.  This 
is  a  strong  statement  of  a  precious  truth.  We  may 
repose  the  most  perfect  confidence  in  God,  that  instead 
of  being  thwarted  by  the  rage  of  men,  he  will  use  it  as 
an  instrument,  and  whether  men  are  good  or  bad,  they 
will  be  made  to  serve  him:  the  good,  of  their  own  ac- 
cord ;  the  bad,  in  spite  of  their  evil  designs. 

I  might  show  the  truth  of  this  by  many  examples, 
some  of  which  are  familiar,  and  have  been  cited  by 
inspired  authority  to  establish  the  doctrine.  Pharaoh 
and  Sennacherib  are  said,  in  Holy  Scripture,  to  have 
been  raised  up  for  the  very  purpose  of  exhibiting  God's 
power  in  them,  and  making  him  known  throughout  all 
the  earth.  And  this,  without  in  the  least  abridging 
human  freedom  and  blameworthiness,  as  was  most  con- 
spicuously shown  in  the  killing  of  the  Lord  of  glory, 
"delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowl- 
edge of  God,"  but  "taken  by  wicked  men,  and  by 
wicked  hands  crucified  and  slain."  But  we  need  not 
go  to  past  histories,  not  even  when  interpreted  by  in- 
spired penmen.  The  event  of  to-day  proclaims  God,  his 
power,  and  wisdom,  and  love,  as  really  as  any  event 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  87 

which  ever  provoked  a  nation's  tears,  and  clothed  them 
in  sackcloth.  The  wrath  of  man  has  praised  God,  shall 
praise  him,  and  is  praising  him  now.  Be  not  afraid  of 
any  manifestation  of  human  wickedness  and  rage.  Be 
not  surprised,  and  let  no  sense  of  loss  and  defeat  over- 
whelm you,  because  the  spirit  of  Rebellion,  in  its  dying 
throes,  mad  with  shame  and  despair,  has  stung  itself 
to  death  by  striking  at  the  sacred  person  of  the  Chief 
Magistrate.  Even  now,  amid  the  wild  excitement  of 
this  hour,  with  the  surges  of  grief  sweeping  over  the 
nation,  every  patriot  bosom  tumultuating  with  conflict- 
ing emotions,  we  already  see  enough  to  say,  "The  wrath 
of  man  shall  praise  God."  It  is  not  all  darkness  above 
us ;  through  the  rifts  of  the  clouds  the  light  is  shining, 
glimpses  of  the  infinite  flood  filling  the  eternal  heavens. 

Let  me  now  ask  your  attention  to  a  few  of  the  consid- 
erations, which  may  aid  you  to  understand  how  the 
wrath  of  man,  in  compassing  the  death  of  our  Presi- 
dent, shall  yet  praise  God. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  shall  do  it  by  revealing  the 
wickedness  of  this  rebellion. 

There  would  seem  to  have  been  evidence  enough  of 
this  already;  with  bursting  hearts  we  are  ready  to 
exclaim,  we  did  not  need  this  last  act  to  make  the  rebel- 
lion the  most  tragic  of  crimes.  Considered  simply  as 
rebellion  against  just  authority,  it  must  be  held  to  be 
a  sin  against  God,  so  long  as  the  13th  chapter  of  Ro- 
mans maintains  its  place  in  the  Bible,  and  binds  the 
consciences  of  Christians.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  miti- 
gate this  sentence  by  quoting  the  exceptional  cases  in 
which  the  right  of  revolution  is  to  be  allowed.  Our 
enemies  themselves  being  judges,  this  was  no  excep- 
tional case;  no  grievajice  had  been  endured  by  the 


88  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

South;  on  the  contrary,  her  foremost  statesman,  the 
Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy  had  publicly  de- 
clared, and  abundantly  shown,  that  the  Government 
at  Washington  had  never  done  them  a  wrong,  but  had 
been  the  most  beneficent  of  governments,  and  that  from 
the  beginning  the  South  had  controlled  the  legislation 
of  the  country,  and  had  received  the  lion's  share  of  the 
honors  and  emoluments  of  the  Government,  while  bear- 
ing the  least  considerable  portion  of  its  burdens.  If 
rebellion  ever  was  a  sin,  therefore,  and  St.  Paul  declares 
it  always  is,  this  was  the  greatest  sin  against  God  that 
ever  was  inaugurated.  It  began  in  a  conspiracy  worse 
than  Catiline's ;  it  secretly  plotted  death  to  the  consti- 
tution, while  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  honors  and  immu- 
nities; it  raised,  organized,  and  drilled  armies,  while 
nobody  but  themselves  believed  that  war  was  possible 
or  intended ;  and  when  at  last  the  strange  rebellion  was 
actually  born,  it  came  not  less  of  perjury  toward  God 
than  of  treason  toward  man. 

Thus  conceived,  and  thus  brought  forth,  its  whole 
history  has  been  marked  by  cruelties,  which  have  been 
only  the  more  diabolical,  because  they  have  been  prac- 
ticed under  the  studied  hypocrisies  of  thanksgivings, 
and  fasts,  and  humble  professions  of  humanity  and 
injured  innocence.  The  most  flagrant  falsehoods  have 
been  invented  to  fire  the  Southern  heart ;  the  most  fero- 
cious passions  engendered,  venting  themselves  upon 
wounded  men,  and  the  unresisting  bodies  of  the  slain ; 
and  all  this,  while  the  Government,  actuated  by  the 
most  merciful  of  men,  and  the  most  paternal  of  rulers, 
was  holding  the  olive-branch  in  one  hand  and  the 
sword  in  the  other.  At  length,  in  its  adult  stature,  the 
rebellion  culminated  in  a  malignity,  which  has  abso- 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  89 

lutely  no  parallel  in  the  military  annals  of  mankind, 
in  the  starvation  of  prisoners  of  war,  adopted  when  the 
novelty  of  the  war  had  worn  ofif,  when  no  apologies  of 
impulse  and  sudden  gusts  of  passion  could  be  pleaded, 
but  entered  upon  as  a  system,  and  prosecuted  with 
a  calm  and  unrelenting  purpose,  until  by  tens  of  thou- 
sands the  naked,  the  frozen,  and  the  starved  were  con- 
signed to  a  death  in  comparison  with  which  the  cruel- 
ties of  Indians  and  Sepoys  were  mercies.  I  do  not  over- 
state the  facts — would  God  I  did !  I  have  just  seen  a 
letter  from  Dr.  C.  R.  Agnew,  a  gentleman  of  the  highest 
professional  skill  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  who, 
from  love  of  country,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  large  and 
lucrative  practice,  has  consecrated  conscientiously  one 
third  of  his  time  to  the  service  of  his  country  in  con- 
nection with  the  Sanitary  Commission.  No  one  can 
doubt  his  competency  to  testify,  nor  his  character  as 
a  Christian  man;  and  I  will  now  read  from  his  letter 
dated  at  Wilmington,  N.  C,  March  20,  1865.  It  is  pain- 
ful for  me  to  read  it  in  your  presence,  ye  mothers  and 
sisters  and  wives ;  it  will  be  painful  for  you  to  hear  it 
but  you  must  do  it,  and  hold  your  minds  to  the  facts 
which  are  thus  certified  to  you,  for  only  by  knowing 
these  facts,  and  feeling  as  they  will  make  you  feel,  can 
you  understand  this  rebellion  and  the  justice  of  God 
in  dealing  with  it.    Dr.  Agnew  writes : 

''Many  of  the  men  were  in  a  state  of  mind  resembling 
idiocy,  unable  to  tell  their  names,  and  lost  to  all  sense 
of  modesty,  unconscious  of  their  nakedness  and  per- 
sonal condition.  Some  of  them  moved  about  on  their 
hands  and  knees,  unable  to  stand  upon  their  gangre- 
nous feet,  looking  up  like  hungry  dogs,  beseeching  the 
observer  for  a  bite  of  bread  or  a  sup  of  water.    Some 


90  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

of  them  hitched  along  on  their  hands,  as  they  were 
able,  pushing  gangrenous  feet,  literally  reduced  to 
bone  and  shreds,  before  them.  Others  leaned  upon 
staves,  and  glared  from  sunken  eyes  through  the  parch- 
ment-like slits  of  their  open  eye-lids  into  space  without 
having  the  power  to  fix  an  intelligent  gaze  upon  pass- 
ing objects.  Others  giggled  and  smirked  and  babbled 
like  starved  idiots,  while  some  adamantine  figures 
walked  erect,  as  though  they  meant  to  move  the  skel- 
eton homewards  so  long  as  vitality  enough  remained  to 
enable  them  to  do  so.  To  see  the  men  who  remain  here 
in  hospital  would  move  a  heart  as  hard  and  cold  as 
marble.  Their  condition  is  that  of  men  who  have  for 
months  sufifered  chronic  starvation.  Their  arms  and 
legs  look  like  coarse  reeds  with  bulbous  joints.  Their 
faces  look  as  though  a  skillful  taxidermist  had  drawn 
tanned  skin  over  the  bare  skull,  and  then  placed  false 
eyes  in  the  orbital  cavities.  They  defy  description.  It 
would  take  a  pen  expert  in  the  use  of  every  term  known 
to  the  anatomist  and  the  physician  to  begin  to  expos^ 
their  fearful  condition." 

But  all  this  long  history  of  war,  culminating  in  this 
frightful  crime  against  humanity,  was  not  enough  to 
make  apparent  the  wickedness  of  the  rebellion;  there 
were  among  ourselves  not  a  few  sympathizers  and  apol- 
ogists, and  among  foreign  nations  it  still  wore  an  air 
of  respectability.  Its  authors  and  leaders,"  we  were 
told,  "were  honorable,  chivalric  men;  they  never  could 
be  subjugated;  we  must  let  them  go  and  establish  a 
slave  empire,  or  by  an  inglorious  compromise  become 
ourselves  partners  of  their  crime."  And  one  thing 
more  was  necessary  to  unite  all  hearts  at  home,  and 
make  the  cause  of  freedom  the  cause  of  civilization  and 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  91 

mankind:  the  arm  that  had  struck  at  the  life  of  the 
American  nation  must  be  permitted  to  strike  down  the 
person  of  the  American  President.  It  has  been  done. 
The  wrath  of  man  has  expended  itself,  and  who  does 
not  see  that  that  wrath  shall  praise  God?  This  last 
revealing  act  has  brought  home  to  every  man  the 
murderous  malignity  with  which  the  rebellion  was 
instinct.  When  our  President  fell,  "you  and  I  and  all 
of  us  fell  down." 

The  rebellion  is  no  longer  an  abstraction — it  is 
murder.  Treason  is  no  longer  a  mere  opinion,  as 
respectable  as  any  other  while  the  war  lasts,  and  the 
better  opinion  if  it  triumphs;  but  it  is  red-handed 
violence,  stealing  behind  the  back  of  our  chief  to 
murder  him,  and  breaking  into  the  sick-room  of  our 
leading  statesman  to  stab  him  in  his  bed.  Let  who  will 
speak  well  of  this  rebellion  hereafter,  neither  you  nor 
I  may  care.  The  venue  is  changed ;  we  are  henceforth 
no  more  concerned  than  the  rest  of  mankind;  our 
enemies  have  made  themselves  outlaws,  and  our  cause 
is  merged  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  Eternal  justice  is 
avenged.    The  wrath  of  man  praises  God! 

2.  But  I  proceed  to  make  a  second  point  in  illustra- 
tion of  the  text.  We  learn  the  wickedness  of  that 
system  of  slavery,  which  has  nurtured  the  implacable, 
man-eating  and  God-defying  spirit,  revealing  itself  in 
the  murder  of  the  President. 

It  is  no  new  thing  that  we  see  to-day,  only  now  we 
see  it,  and  feel  it,  as  we  did  not  when  it  was  grinding 
the  poor  bondman  in  the  earth.  The  wisdom  and  good- 
ness, in  one  word  the  glory  of  God,  is  conspicuous  in 
this,  that  men  now  take  part  with  God  in  his  abhor- 
rence of  crime  perpetrated  upon  the  humblest  of  his 


92  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

creatures.  If  you  will  reflect  a  moment,  if  you  will  call 
to  miud  the  facts  by  which  slavery  has  expressed  itself, 
ever  since  you  can  remember,  you  will  recognize  the 
same  spirit,  and  the  great  criminal  of  to-day,  who  has 
draped  our  houses  and  our  churches  in  black,  is  a 
legitimate  child  of  slavery;  no  new  thing  has  happened 
under  the  sun,  only  a  new  exhibition  of  an  old  thing; 
it  is  but  the  outcome  of  that  proud  insurrection  against 
human  rights,  which  has  trampled  on  men  for  more 
than  two  centuries.  Call  it  what  you  will,  a  Patri- 
archal system,  which  brings  down  to  our  times  the 
virtues  and  blessings  of  the  highest  style  of  manhood ; 
a  system  of  domestic  life,  good  enough  for  gentle 
woman  to  cherish  in  the  name  of  the  family  and  the 
sanctities  of  private  life ;  an  order  of  society  which  the 
minister  of  God  is  to  baptize  with  a  Christian  name, 
and  in  the  conservation  of  which,  the  church  of  God 
in  America  is  to  find  her  mission ;  call  it  what  you 
will,  I  know  that  the  separation  of  husband  and  wife, 
the  sale  of  little  children  out  of  a  mother's  lap,  the  with- 
holding of  wages  from  the  laboring  poor,  and  the  denial 
of  knowledge  to  the  mind,  which  is  as  much  the  birth- 
right of  the  human  soul  as  the  light  of  the  sun  is  of 
the  human  body;  I  Jaiow  that  these  things  are  sins 
against  God,  and  sins  against  Him  who  said,  "Inas- 
much as  ye  did  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it 
unto  me,"  such  that  even  all  the  tears  and  blood  and 
groans  of  this  civil  war  are  not  too  severe  an  expres- 
sion of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God!  But  oh!  the 
difference  between  knowing  this,  and  feeling  it,  as  we 
do  to-day,  when  this  violent  invasion  of  the  sacred 
rights  of  man  has  entered  our  hearts  through  the  sacred 
person  of  the  representative  head  of  the  nation !    Many 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  93 

a  poor  black  man  has  fallen,  shot  from  behind,  who 
died,  as  our  President  did,  for  the  assertion  of  human 
rights;  and  although  each  of  these  murders  revealed 
as  much  of  wickedness  to  the  infinite  heart  of  God,  as 
this  last,  they  did  not  to  us.  Many  a  traveler  at  the 
South,  not  black  but  white,  for  no  greater  crime  than 
the  declaration  of  his  belief  in  the  inalienable  rights  of 
all  men,  and  many  suspected  of  such  a  declaration,  or 
of  such  a  belief  without  the  declaration,  have  been 
murdered  and  left  swinging  from  the  branches  of  trees ; 
but  the  intelligence,  when  it  came  North,  only  wrapped 
in  mourning  some  solitary  family,  or  some  little  circle 
of  relatives  bereaved ;  we  did  not  feel  it,  and  could  not 
feel  it,  as  now  when  the  fell  spirit  of  slavery  has 
stricken  down  our  President,  and  draped  a  nation  in 
the  emblems  of  mourning. 

I  do  not  presume,  with  my  present  knowledge,  to 
charge  this  crime  upon  individuals;  we  must  await  the 
developments  of  the  trial  to  know  who  are  implicated 
in  the  bloody  conspiracy ;  but  I  do  take  it  upon  myself 
to  say  that  slavery  is  responsible  for  this  crime;  the 
proof  is  demonstrative,  it  could  not  be  stronger.  The 
only  right  that  slavery  has  is  the  might  of  a  superior 
over  an  inferior  race ;  and  as  if  conscious  of  its  origin, 
it  has  always  opposed  violence  to  reason.  It  has  taught 
that  it  was  right  to  kill  a  resisting  black  man  and 
equally  a  protesting  white  man.  Since  the  war  has 
raged,  nothing  has  been  more  common  than  to  threaten 
with  assassination  the  agents  of  the  Government,  and 
especially  its  head.  Rewards  have  been  offered ;  vicious 
and  uneducated  young  men  have  been  inspired  with  the 
ambition;  and  when  at  last  one  has  been  found  bold 
enough  and  mad  enough  to  do  it  and  succeed  it  will 


94  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

be  impossible  in  the  recoil  of  public  feeling,  and  in 
the  fear  of  the  execration  of  mankind,  to  deny  the  par- 
entage and  training  of  the  act.  It  matters  not  who 
or  what  the  miserable  tool  was,  what  his  name  or  his 
antecedents,  whether  a  Northern  sympathizer  or 
Southern  rebel,  he  but  embodies  the  spirit  of  slavery, 
he  is  but  the  hand  that  executes  its  savage  command. 
This,  therefore,  is  the  vindication  of  God's  providence. 
He  has  given  vent  to  the  wrath  of  man  till  it  has  fully 
declared  itself,  and  all  men  seeing  detest  it.  Slavery 
stands  revealed,  for  the  abhorrence  of  mankind ;  its  last 
act,  in  the  rebound,  strikes  itself  upon  the  head,  and 
in  the  excess  of  its  wrath  it  praises  God ! 

3.  We  learn  the  folly  as  well  as  madness  of  sin.  And 
so  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  God. 

The  thought  of  the  murderer  was  to  avenge  the  South, 
and  destroy  our  national  Government;  the  effect  is  to 
bury  the  cause  of  the  South  beneath  the  execration  of 
mankind,  and  gather  around  the  Government  the 
strength  of  all  loyal  hearts  and  the  sympathy  of  every 
civilized  people.  Was  there  ever  an  instance  like  this 
of  the  insanity  of  wickedness?  Destroy  the  Govern- 
ment! Never  was  it  stronger.  It  is  the  revelation  of 
a  strength  we  scarcely  dared  claim,  and  which  was 
never  suspected  abroad.  It  is  lodged  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  and  is  as  indestructible  as  the  people  them- 
selves. The  ship  of  state  scarcely  feels  a  tremble  as 
the  helmsman  falls  at  his  post;  another  hand  is  on  the 
wheel,  the  machinery  never  intermits  its  action,  nor 
even  feels  a  jar,  the  good  ship  falls  off  not  so  much  as 
a  point  from  her  course,  and  is  now  as  safe  and  sound 
as  when  our  loved  and  elected  chieftain  guided  her  with 
a  wisdom,  patience,  and  faithfulness  never  surpassed. 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  95 

Probably  no  two  men  in  the  nation  could  be  struck 
down  whose  death  would  be  a  greater  calamity  to 
leading  rebels  than  that  of  Lincoln  and  Seward.  The 
Government  can  spare  them,  for  by  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  their  wise  administration  of  public  afifairs  it  is 
now  sure  of  the  support  of  the  people  and  of  the 
respect  of  foreign  nations ;  and  there  are  other  men  as 
capable  to  guide  the  policy  of  pacification  and  recon- 
struction. But  the  rebels,  the  leading  and  responsible 
rebels,  cannot  spare  these  men,  least  of  all  by  a  death 
occasioned  or  inspired  by  them.  The  armies  of  Grant 
and  Sherman  have  destroyed  the  body  of  the  rebellion ; 
Mr.  Lincoln's  death  its  spirit.  From  this  hour  forth 
not  a  shred  of  respectability  remains  to  it;  and  as  this 
intelligence  shall  reach  the  nations  of  the  old  world,  its 
adherents  from  very  shame  will  fall  off  from  it,  and 
its  representatives  abroad  in  the  midst  of  the  horror 
of  maakind  be  compelled  to  employ  the  language  of 
apology  and  deprecation.  And  this  by  their  own  act! 
Their  mad  threats,  their  insane  spirit,  has  at  last  found 
a  head  and  a  hand ;  and  nothing  has  been  wanting  but 
success  to  defeat  it.  God  is  praised,  and  by  the  wrath 
of  man.  There  is  something  wonderful  about  this. 
"How  unsearchable  are  the  judgments  of  God,  and  his 
ways  past  finding  out !"  The  very  mercifulness  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  the  fact  that  as  far  as  possible  in  faithfulness 
to  public  interests  he  was  bent  upon  showing  kindness 
to  individuals,  the  fact  that  of  all  men  in  this  country 
he  least  of  all  deserved  to  die  by  a  rebel  bullet,  this 
has  made  him  the  fittest  sacrifice  for  his  country,  and 
given  his  blood  a  power  over  friend  and  foe,  to  make 
friends,  or  to  banish  enemies,  which  no  other  event 
could  possibly  equal.    A  man  who  was  regarded  as  the 


9G  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

father  of  the  people,  and  the  saviour  of  his  country, 
has  been  murdered  for  no  fault  of  his  own,  but  as  the 
representative  of  a  righteous  cause,  as  the  man  who 
stood  for  you  and  me,  and  for  the  cause  of  the  down- 
trodden, and  for  the  liberties  of  millions  yet  to  be;  and 
his  blood,  thus  shed,  is  doing  and  will  do  what  his  life 
and  no  other  life  could  accomplish.  It  has  united  our 
countrymen,  as  they  never  were  before ;  around  the  bier 
of  Lincoln,  they  have  felt  and  acted  as  one  family.  This 
great  national  sorrow,  if  it  has  not  made  us  one  nation, 
has  proved  us  one.  Common  emotions  have  done  much 
to  knit  to  each  other  the  hearts  of  our  countrymen; 
taking  his  life  and  death  together,  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  Abraham  Lincoln  has  done  more  than  any  one 
man  that  ever  lived  to  make  the  American  people  one 
nationality!  I  do  not  mourn  for  Lincoln;  his  best 
friend  need  not  mourn  for  him;  he  died  at  the  acme 
of  his  fame;  he  died  in  a  way  to  make  the  most  of  his 
virtues,  his  loving,  kindly  nature,  it  has  all  borne  fruit 
in  his  death;  he  is  embalmed  forever  in  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen,  and  his  blood  is  the  cement  of  that 
Union  to  the  preservation  of  which  he  religiously  con- 
secrated his  life.  He  was  happy  too,  in  the  time  of  his 
death,  it  was  the  sunrise  of  peace  upon  the  land;  a 
momentary  pang,  he  knew  not  whence  or  what  it  was, 
and  he  was  happy  in  death. 

His  suffering  ended  with  the  day. 

Yet  lived  lie  at  its  close. 
And  breathed  the  long,  long  night  away. 

In  statue-like  repose. 
But  when  the  sun,  in  all  his  state. 

Illumined  the  eastern  skies, 
He  passed  through  Glory's  morning  gate. 

And  walked  in  Paradise. 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  97 

If  then  he  has  not  suffered  loss,  and  the  country, 
united  by  sorrow,  has  gained ;  behold  the  folly  and  mad- 
ness of  this  great  wickedness;  see  how  the  wrath  of 
man  praises  God ! 

4.  There  is  another  influence  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  death 
which  illustrates  the  text.  It  checks  that  unreasonable, 
and  I  will  add  unchristian  charity,  which  ignores  the 
guilt  of  sin,  and  denies  the  necessity  of  its  penalty. 

People  are  talking  of  justice  now,  not  forgiveness. 
There  is  for  the  moment  wild  talk  of  vengeance;  for  one 
extreme  is  apt  to  generate  another;  and  vengeance  is 
an  extreme,  but  no  more  so  than  indiscriminate  pardon. 
Before  this  war  broke  out,  a  lax  theology  prevailed 
among  us,  which  had  succeeded,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  in  banishing  from  our  pulpits,  and  from  the 
minds  of  our  people,  the  old  and  vital  doctrines  of  the 
gospel,  the  intrinsic  evil  of  sin,  and  the  absolute 
necessity  of  penalties  to  vindicate  the  law  of  God,  and, 
by  consequence,  the  need  of  an  infinite  atonement  to 
open  the  way  for  pardon.  Men  ceased  to  fear  God,  or 
reverence  his  law;  the  guilt  of  sin  was  denied,  it  was 
only  a  mistake  at  worst ;  hell  was  derided  as  a  supersti- 
tion; and  many  were  lapsing  into  infidelity  and  athe- 
ism. At  the  same  time,  and  by  legitimate  consequence, 
low  views  were  entertained  of  government,  as  God's 
ordinance,  capital  punishments  were  abolished,  pen- 
itentiaries were  no  longer  penal,  criminals  were  sym- 
pathized with,  and  pitied  rather  than  blamed,  and  the 
greatest  criminals  were  the  most  shielded ;  treason  had 
shrunk  to  the  dimensions  of  a  political  theory,  and  was 
no  longer  a  crime,  much  less  the  greatest  crime  known 
to  the  statute-book  and  possible  to  the  citizen,  while 
murder  had  lost  its  revolting  character  by  no  longer 


98  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

putting  the  murderer's  life  in  peril.  From  all  this  the 
war,  we  thought,  had  redeemed  us;  it  had  certainly 
taught  us  fundamental  lessons  of  right  and  wrong,- 
and  made  a  chasm  between  them  in  the  blood  of  our 
sons,  which  nothing  ever  seemed  able  to  fill  up.  But 
with  the  success  of  the  national  arms,  and  the  compar- 
ative subsidence  of  the  rebellion,  there  was  fast  return- 
ing upon  us  our  old  loose  way  of  thinking  and  talk- 
ing. Bloody  treason  began  to  be  whitewashed ;  and  the 
chief  traitors  found  apologists,  and  men  pleaded  for 
the  lives  of  traitors,  who  would  have  been  the  first  to 
fall  by  assassination  had  the  treason  triumphed.  How 
far  this  reaction  would  have  gone,  but  for  the  last  great 
crime  of  the  rebellion,  none  can  tell.  The  dying  viper 
might  and  probably  would  have  been  nursed  into  life 
again  by  the  warm  confidence  of  a  country  into  whose 
bosom  it  had  struck  its  venomous  fangs.  The  genius 
and  the  virtues  of  the  military  leaders  of  the  South 
were  praised,  as  if  the  brilliant  qualities  of  criminals, 
instead  of  enhancing,  diminished  the  crime.  A  base- 
born  hero-worship  was  already  preparing  to  sacrifice 
the  sacred  interests  of  right  to  the  pretensions  of  a 
proud  aristocracy.  But  blessed  be  God !  we  have  been 
spared  this  shame ;  in  the  hour  of  our  triumph  we  have 
not  been  permitted  to  fall  down,  and  beg  pardon  of 
our  conquered  foes  for  the  heroism  of  our  slaughtered 
sons.  God's  providence  has  saved  us  this  I  The  wrath 
of  man  has  been  allowed  one  more  expression,  that  we 
may  not  mistake,  and  that  all  the  world  may  know,  the 
malice,  strong  in  death,  of  this  man-hating  and  God- 
defying  rebellion!  It  has  stood  for  its  picture  once 
more,  lest  through  the  smoke  of  battle  the  features  of 
the  demon  should  be  obscured;  now  upon  the  dark 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUDINGTON  99 

background  of  the  war,  like  a  retiring  tempest,  a  mis- 
creant leaps  upon  the  stage,  brandishing  the  assassin's 
dagger,  exulting  in  the  murder  of  our  good  President! 
Blessed  be  God !  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  him ! 

5.  There  is  a  still  more  impressive  lesson  to  be  learned. 
God  has  a  right  to  the  blood  of  his  servants,  no  less 
than  to  their  life.  There  are  times  when  the  death  of  a 
good  man  will  do  more  than  his  life  can  by  any  pos- 
sibility. Suffering  wrong  with  patient  love  will  some- 
times triumph,  when  everything  else  fails.  God  needed 
for  his  purposes  the  death  of  his  Son,  so  imperatively 
needed  it  that  not  even  the  prayer  of  that  Son,  whom 
his  Father  always  heard,  could  avail  to  make  the  cup 
pass  from  him.  God  needed  the  blood  of  the  martyrs, 
in  their  day,  to  corroborate  and  sanctify  his  gospel! 
God  needed,  likewise,  the  blood  of  Abraham  Lincoln! 
We  can  already  see  that  it  is  doing  what  his  life  and 
his  best  services  were  powerless  to  accomplish.  When 
leaving  his  home  at  Springfield  giving  himself  to  his 
country  and  asking  the  prayers  of  God's  people  for  him, 
he  gave  himself  equally  to  life  and  death.  Even  then 
threats  of  assassination  flew  thick  and  fast  about  him, 
they  paved  his  way  to  the  capitol,  he  was  almost 
involved  in  their  toils  before  he  reached  it,  and  now 
that  the  threat  is  accomplished,  he  has  fallen  a  sacrifice, 
not  unprepared  nor  unwillingly.  It  is  a  high  distinc- 
tion— I  might  say  the  highest  and  not  over-state  it^ — 
when  a  man's  death  is  needed  to  accomplish  his  life's 
work ;  and  useful  as  he  may  have  been  while  he  lived, 
to  be  still  more  useful  when  he  died.  There  are  few 
men  of  whom  this  can  be  said.  God  places  not  many 
in  such  circumstances,  that  even  when  through  mortal 
weakness  they  die,  it  adds  strength  to  the  whole  influ- 


100        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

ence  and  force  of  their  lives.  Most  men  die  because 
they  must,  and  their  time  has  come ;  and  however  much 
their  removal  may  be  mourned,  their  death  is  simply  a 
loss ;  it  is  the  payment  of  a  debt  to  nature.  But  not  so 
with  the  soldier-like  death  of  Lincoln.  It  gives  him 
an  immortality  of  fame,  seals  with  blood  and  conse- 
crates forever  the  history  of  which  he  has  been  the 
anointed  leader;  and  out  of  such  a  death  there  is  a 
resurrection  of  new  life  for  the  nation  and  mankind ! 
No  man's  life  is  to  be  compared  with  Christ's,  and  no 
man's  death  with  his;  but  he  comes  nearest  to  the 
Divine  Man  who  receives  a  trust  for  humanity,  carries 
it  to  a  successful  issue,  and  at  last  dies  for  it,  making 
his  life  to  culminate  and  triumph  in  death.  This  is  the 
high  calling  of  men  treading  after  and  next  the  person 
of  Christ !  This  is  the  crown  of  martyrs !  This  is  the 
calling  and  the  crown  of  Abraham  Lincoln ! 

I  cannot  cease  speaking  without  commending  to  your 
prayers  and  confidence  him  who  is  called  so  suddenly 
to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  land.  I  feel  compelled 
to  do  this,  because  of  the  unfortunate  impression  made 
upon  the  country  by  Mr.  Johnson  at  the  late  inaugura- 
tion. With  a  haste  as  unreasonable  as  it  is  uncharit- 
able, he  has  been  condemned,  as  if  an  act  proved  a  habit. 
There  is  not  a  man  in  this  assembly  who  would  not 
feel  that  the  deepest  injustice  had  been  done  him  by 
such  treatment.  Admitting  the  worst  that  has  been 
said,  or  that  can  be  said,  of  Mr.  Johnson's  condition 
on  that  day,  it  is  as  susceptible  of  a  favorable  inter- 
pretation as  of  an  unfavorable.  It  may  have  been,  nay, 
we  are  bound  to  believe  it  was  an  accident  pure  and 
simple — proof  only  of  an  enfeebled  body,  and  of  an 
anxiety  in  spite  of  sickness  to  discharge  a  public  duty. 


WILLIAM  IVES  BUBINGTON  101 

We  have  the  amplest  assurances  that  this  was  the  case. 
The  Vice-President,  now  President  of  the  United  States, 
is  entitled  to  the  respectful  confidence  of  the  American 
people.  The  strong  and  generous  testimony  of  General 
Burnside,  yesterday,  in  New  York,  is  sufficient  and  will 
be  cordially  regarded  as  such  by  all  loyal  and  patriotic 
citizens.  Let  us  give  him  our  confidence,  and  pray 
for  him  as  we  did  for  his  lamented  predecessor. 


VI 
REV.  JOHN  McCLINTOCK,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"Remember  them  which  have  the  rule  over  you,  .  .  .  whose 
faith  follow,"— Heb.  13.  7. 

It  is  the  Lord;  his  will  be  done.  The  blow  has 
stunned  the  nation.  Had  we  no  trust  in  Him  who  con- 
quers even  the  last  enemy,  "the  victory  of  the  grave" 
which  calls  us  together  to-day  would  fill  us  with  despair. 
And  even  with  all  the  light  which  the  word  of  God 
affords,  and  with  all  the  strength  which  our  faith  in 
God  gives  us,  we  can  still  only  say,  "His  way  is  in  the 
sea,  and  his  path  in  the  deep  waters."  We  shall  know 
hereafter  what  he  doeth ;  but  we  know  not  now. 
'^Rememier/'  says  our  text,  and  '^follow.'' 
There  is  little  fear  of  our  forgetting — there  is  little 
fear  of  the  world  forgetting  the  name  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  It  was  the  remark  of  Heine,  the  German 
poet  and  satirist,  that  "men  preserve  the  memory  of 
their  destroyers  better  than  that  of  their  benefactors; 
the  warrior's  name  outlasts  the  philanthropist's." 
There  is  some  truth  in  this,  taking  the  world's  history 
as  it  has  been.  But  it  is  one  of  the  best  signs  of  the 
times  that  men's  hearts  are,  more  than  ever,  attracted 
by  moral  greatness,  and  that  all  laurels  are  not  stained 
with  blood.  The  day  is  dawning,  even  though  its  ris- 
ing sun  be  dimmed  by  clouds,  and  struggles  up  amid 

102 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  103 

gloom,  and  tears  and  blood,  in  which  the  glory  of  the 
reformer  shall  outshine  that  of  the  conqueror — in 
which  the 

Saints  of  humanity,  strong,  yet  tender. 
Making  the  present  hopeful  with  their  life, 

shall  be  held  the  true  heroes  in  men's  thoughts,  as  they 
are  the  true  heroes  in  the  progress  of  humanity,  and 
before  the  eye  of  God,  And  to  this  heroic  class  belongs 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  fell,  if  ever  man 
did,  fighting  the  battles  of  humanity. 

A  voice  came  to  us  ten  days  ago  from  beyond  the 
sea.  Here  is  what  it  says  of  Abraham  Lincoln :  "When 
the  heats  of  party  passion  and  international  jealousy 
have  abated,  when  detraction  has  spent  its  malice,  and 
the  scandalous  gossip  of  the  day  goes  the  way  of  all 
lies,  the  place  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  grateful  affec- 
tion of  his  countrymen  and  in  the  respect  of  mankind, 
will  be  second  only,  if  it  be  second,  to  that  of  Washing- 
ton himself."  When  Robert  Cairnes  penned  those 
prophetic  words,  how  little  did  he  dream  that  in  a  few 
weeks  his  prediction  should  become  history!  "When 
the  heats  of  party  passion  are  abated !"  A  work  of  long 
and  weary  time,  no  doubt.  Yet  it  has  been  done  in  a 
day.  The  fame  of  Abraham  Lincoln  has  not  had  to 
wait  for  the  revolving  years  to  set  it  right.  The  bullet 
of  the  assassin  has  done  the  work  of  an  age.  To-day 
that  name  stands  as  high  before  this  whole  people,  of 
all  parties,  of  all  sects,  of  all  classes,  as  it  would  have 
stood  in  a  half  a  century,  had  the  blow  of  the  assassin 
never  fallen.  Party  spirit,  for  the  time  at  least,  is  dead. 
Who  thinks  of  party  now?  There  are  doubtless,  in  this 
congregation,  many  men  who  voted  against  Abraham 


104        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

Lincoln ;  is  there  one  of  them  who  does  not  mourn  him 
to-day?  When  you  heard  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
dead — you,  who  a  year  ago,  perhaps,  made  his  name  an 
object  of  abuse  and  calumny;  you,  whose  lips  were  ac- 
customed to  speak  of  that  brave,  noble,  loving  man  as 
a  usurper,  perhaps,  or  at  least  as  a  foolish  imbecile, 
and  an  unfit  tenant  of  the  highest  place  in  all  the  world 
— I  ask  you,  when  you  heard  on  Saturday  morning  that 
Lincoln  was  dead,  did  not  your  heart  throb  as  never 
before;  did  not  your  throat  become  husky  and  the 
damp  gather  in  your  eyes  in  spite  of  you,  as  you  spoke 
of  it?  Party  spirit  for  the  moment  is  indeed  forgotten. 
Do  not  forget  the  lesson ;  and  when  your  party  journals 
begin,  as  they  will  begin  very  soon,  to  assail  Andrew 
Johnson,  as  they  have  in  the  past  assailed  Abraham 
Lincoln,  do  not  be  led  away;  let  not  opposition  be 
sullied  with  calumny  or  embittered  by  hate. 

The  streets  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  of  every 
city  in  the  Union,  from  Portland  to  San  Francisco, 
are  clad  in  mourning.  I  have  been  struck,  in  going 
through  the  poorer  streets  of  this  city,  to  find  the 
emblems  of  sorrow  more  general,  if  possible,  on  the 
abodes  of  the  humble  and  the  lowly,  than  on  the  stately 
dwellings  of  the  rich  in  the  grand  avenues.  All  over 
this  land,  and  over  all  the  civilized  world,  I  dare  say 
there  shall  be  grief  and  mourning  in  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  those  who  are  called  the  "common  people"— v 
of  whom  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  "ruling  classes" 
abroad  will  grieve  also,  but  for  a  very  different  reason. 
The  Tories  and  aristocrats  of  England  have  watched, 
with  fear  and  wrath,  the  later  progress  of  the  Republic 
toward  triumph ;  and  they  will  feel  the  tremor  of  a 
new  fear  when  they  learn  that  this  good  and  generous 


JOHN  McCLlNTOCK  105 

man — so  tender,  so  merciful,  so  forgiving,  so  full  of  all 
peaceful  thoughts  that  revenge  or  cruelty  could  find  no 
place  in  his  heart;  this  noble,  steadfast  man  of  the 
people,  at  whose  feet  all  their  taunts  and  gibes  had 
fallen  harmless,  whose  simple  dignity  of  nature 
achieved  for  him  that  serene  indifference,  that  high 
superiority  to  abuse  and  calumny  which  have  been 
claimed  as  the  peculiar  attributes  of  what  are  called 
high  birth  and  breeding — has  passed  away  from  earth. 
For  they  were  just  learning  that  he  loved  peace  next 
to  justice,  and,  in  the  vague  terror  of  their  conscious 
guilt,  as  abettors  of  the  slaveholders'  rebellion,  they 
looked  to  the  gentle  ruler,  whom  they  had  so  vilely  tra- 
duced, to  avert  the  war  which  their  consciences  told 
them  ought  to  come. 

But  while,  for  this  reason,  there  will  be  real  grief 
among  the  ruling  classes,  there  shall  be  sorrow  of 
another  sort  among  all  the  liberal  hearts,  among  all 
who  have  hoped  and  struggled  for  the  future  equality 
of  the  race,  and  who,  these  four  weary  years,  have  been 
watching  the  issues  of  our  great  war  for  freedom,  with 
an  intensity  of  feeling  only  next  to  our  own.  As  for 
the  working  classes,  everywhere  through  the  British 
islands,  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  had  come  to  be,  for  them,  the 
synonym  of  hope  for  their  cause;  for  ''Love  had  he 
found  in  huts,  where  poor  men  lie,"  not  only  in  every 
slave  cabin  in  the  South,  where  he  is  canonized  already, 
but  in  many  a  shepherd's  lodge  of  Switzerland — in 
many  a  woodman's  cabin  of  the  Black  Forest — in  many 
a  miner's  hut  of  the  Hartz  Mountains — in  many  a  cot- 
tage in  Italy,  for  there  as  well  as  here,  the  poor  had 
learned  to  look  upon  him  as  the  anointed  of  God  for 


lOG        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  redemption  of  the  liberties  of  mankind.  It  is  but 
lately  that  Garibaldi  named  one  of  his  grandchildren 
Lincoln,  little  dreaming  how  soon  that  name  was  to  be 
enrolled  among  the  immortals.  Oh !  how  his  great 
heart  will  throb,  how  the  tears  will  roll  like  bullets 
down  his  seamed  and  furrowed  face,  when  to  him  shall 
come  the  sad  message,  "Lincoln  is  dead !" 

And  now  let  us  ask  why  all  this  sorrow?  Whence 
this  universal  love?  Certainly  it  was  not  intellectual 
grandeur  that  so  drew  all  hearts  toward  Lincoln. 
And  yet  I  do  not  sympathize  with  much  that  has  been 
said  in  disparagement  of  his  intellect  although  mere 
mental  gifts,  of  the  highest  order,  might  well  have 
been  eclipsed,  in  the  popular  estimation,  by  the  sublim- 
ity of  that  moral  power  w^hich  overshadowed  all  his 
other  qualities.  B4it  it  is  stupid  to  talk  of  him  as  a 
man  of  mean  intellect.  He  had  a  giant's  work  to  do, 
and  he  has  done  it  nobly.  Called  upon  to  steer  the  ship 
of  state  through  the  mightiest  and  most  rapid  tide  of 
events  that  ever  sweep  over  a  nation,  he  guided  her 
safely,  and  was  within  sight  of  the  harbor,  when  he  was 
struck  down  at  the  helm.  Even  in  his  speeches  and 
writings  where  defects  of  form  reveal  the  want  of  early 
culture  and  give  room  for  the  carping  of  petty  critics 
who  can  see  no  farther  than  the  form,  I  do  not  fear  to 
say  that  the  calm  criticism  of  history  will  find  marks 
of  the  highest  power  of  mind.  Do  you  remember  his 
little  speech  over  the  graves  "of  our  martyrs  at  Gettys- 
burg? I  remember  the  thrill  with  which  I  read  it 
across  the  sea.  It  is  Greek-like  in  its  simple  majesty 
of  thought,  and  even  in  the  exquisite  felicity  of  some  of 
its  phrases.  Nor  could  that  have  been  a  mean  intellect 
which  enabled  this  simple  son  of  the  people,  standing 


JOHN  McCLINTOOK  107 

among  men  who  piqued  themselves  upon  their  refine- 
ment and  culture,  among  men  of  large  acquirements 
and  polished  speech,  to  hold  on  his  own  way  among 
them,  to  take  or  reject  their  advice,  to  hear  all  plans 
and  all  arguments,  and  after  all  to  be  the  real  ruler 
of  the  nation  and  of  the  times.  With  such  gifts  as  God 
gave  him,  he  was  enabled  to  pierce  to  the  very  core  of 
a  matter,  while  others,  with  their  fine  rhetoric,  could 
only  talk  around  it. 

Yet  it  was  not  for  the  intellect,  but  for  the  moral 
qualities  of  the  man  that  we  loved  him.  It  is  a  wise 
order  of  Providence  that  it  is  so  that  men  are  drawn. 
We  never  love  cold  intellect.  We  may  admire  it;  we 
may  wonder  at  it ;  sometimes  we  may  even  worship  it, 
but  we  never  love  it.  The  hearts  of  men  leap  out  only 
after  the  image  of  God  in  man,  and  the  image  of  God 
in  man  is  love.  Oh !  what  a  large  and  loving  heart  was 
stilled  last  Friday!  How  fine,  how  tender,  how  all- 
embracing  was  the  love  of  that  old  man !  Those  of  you 
who  have  never  seen  him,  and  never  have  known  the 
inexpressible  charm  of  his  simple  manner,  can  never 
understand  how  much  there  was  in  him  to  love.  Men 
of  all  classes  were  alike  won  by  his  personal  magnetism. 
Those  who  have  traduced  him  most,  and  those  who 
have  been  most  carried  away  by  the  blind  fury  of  par- 
tisan hate,  and  have  gone  to  Washington  to  see  him, 
have  always  come  away  disarmed.  Whenever  they  had 
a  talk  with  the  President,  whenever  those  tender  eyes 
opened  gently  upon  them  (they  had  the  habit  of  open- 
ing gently),  and  they  looked  through  those  portals  of 
his  soul  and  saw  the  infinite  wealth  of  tenderness  that 
was  there  they  yielded  to  the  spell.  Illustrations  of 
the  tenderness  of  his  nature  abound.     A  colonel  in. 


108        LINCOLN  MEMOKIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  army  was  telling  a  friend  the  other  day  of  a  time 
in  1862  when  he  had  command  of  one  of  the  posts,  and 
the  President  visited  the  place  for  a  few  days.  This 
oflScer  had  never  met  the  President  and  had  no  very 
exalted  opinion  of  him,  "but  at  the  end  of  those  ten 
days,"  said  he,  "I  found  that  I  was  in  love  with  him, 
and  I  could  not  help  it."  He  related  an  incident  that 
took  place  one  evening  while  sitting  alone  with  the 
President.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  reading  Shakespeare, 
when  suddenly  turning  his  eyes  upon  the  oflScer,  he 
said:  "Colonel,  do  you  ever  find  yourself  talking  with 
a  dead  friend  as  if  he  was  present  and  still  living?" 
"Yes,"  said  the  colonel,  "I  know  the  feeling,  for  it  has 
occurred  to  me  often."  "I  am  glad  I  asked  you  the 
question,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  closing  his  book  and  lean- 
ing his  head  upon  his  hand,  "I  did  not  know  that  it 
was  common,  but  ever  since  my  little  boy  died,  I  find 
myself  talking  with  him  every  day." 

The  entire  absence  of  vindictiveness,  either  personal 
or  political,  was  one  of  the  ripe  fruits  of  Lincoln's 
native  tenderness.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  his  saying  a 
hard  thing  of  his  opponents?  After  all  the  evil 
calumnies  heaped  upon  him  at  home  and  abroad,  did 
you  ever  know  him  to  utter  a  single  word  showing 
personal  hate,  or  even  personal  feeling?  It  is  a  marvel- 
ous record.  Test  our  public  men  by  this  standard, 
and  you  will  see  how  loftily  he  towers  above  them  in 
moral  dignity.  He  lived  as  he  died:  the  last  of  his 
public  utterances  closed  with  the  words,  "With  malice 
toward  none,  with  the  charity  for  all."  This  phrase 
will  fall  hereafter  into  that  small  number  of  phrases, 
not  Scripture,  but  which  men  often  cite,  unwittingly, 
as  though  they  were. 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  109 

Another  striking  element  of  his  moral  nature  was  his 
profound  faith — a  faith  not  like  that  of  the  man  who 
now  stands  at  the  head  of  the  French  people,  a  blind 
fatalistic  confidence  in  his  own  destiny,  or  in  the 
destiny  of  the  system  with  which  he  is  identified.  Nor 
yet  merely  an  uncalculating  faith  in  the  wisdom,  virtue, 
or  steadfastness  of  the  American  people.  Abraham 
Lincoln  had  this,  indeed ;  but  it  was  not  all ;  he  had  a 
profound  religious  faith ;  not  simply  a  general  recogni- 
tion of  the  law  of  order  in  the  universe,  but  a  profound 
faith  in  a  Personal  God.  He  once  remarked  to  me,  at 
a  sudden  turn  in  conversation,  "Ah,  Providence  is 
stronger  than  either  you  or  I,"  and  he  said  it  in  such 
a  tone  as  to  reveal  a  habit  of  thought.  It  was  out  of 
the  abundance  of  the  heart  that  the  mouth  spoke.  We 
were  discussing  at  the  time  the  relations  of  this  country 
with  Europe,  and  the  effects  of  his  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation.  "When  I  issued  that  Proclamation," 
said  he,  "I  was  in  great  doubt  about  it  myself.  I  did 
not  think  that  the  people  had  been  quite  educated  up 
to  it,  and  I  feared  its  effects  upon  the  Border  States, 
yet  I  think  it  was  right ;  I  knew  it  would  help  our  cause 
in  Europe,  and  I  trusted  in  God  and  did  it."  I  believe 
that  no  President  since  George  Washington  ever 
brought  in  so  eminent  a  degree  to  his  official  work  a 
deep  religious  faith.  Of  his  personal  religious  expe- 
rience I  cannot  speak  of  my  own  knowledge,  but  we 
have  more  than  one  cheering  testimony  about  it.  I 
have  been  assured  that  ever  after  the  battle  of  Gettys- 
burg he  was  daily  in  the  habit  of  supplicating  in  prayer 
the  throne  of  divine  grace,  as  a  believer  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  from  that  time  he  classed  himself  with  be- 
lievers.    Oh!  what  prayers  those  must  have  been  in 


110        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  dark  days  of  '63,  and  how  wondrously  has  God 
answered  them. 

I  shall  not  speak  of  the  patriotism  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  though  it  is  one  of  the  points  of  which  I  had 
intended  to  speak,  but  you  know  all  about  it.  You 
know  what  a  tremendous  duty  fell  to  him  and  how  he 
did  it  all  the  way  through ;  seduced  by  no  blandishment, 
frightened  by  no  threats  from  the  steady  pursuit  of 
his  one  duty — to  restore  the  integrity  of  the  Govern- 
ment. How  far  he  succeeded  is  known  to  you  all.  The 
"forts  and  places"  which  he  said  he  would  retake  are 
all  ours  to-day,  and  the  main  army  of  the  rebellion  is 
scattered  and  gone ! 

The  manners  of  Abraham  Lincoln  have  been  a  matter 
of  a  great  deal  of  comment,  and  of  snobbish  comment 
too.  If  unaffected  simplicity,  the  most  entire  ease, 
and  the  power  to  put  one's  visitor  at  ease,  and  to 
do  it  unconsciously;  if  these  are  the  ultimate  results 
and  the  final  tests  of  refinement,  as  they  unques- 
tionably are,  then  was  he  the  peer  of  any  nobleman  in 
manners.  When  you  shall  learn  to  be  as  easy,  as 
gentle,  as  truly  unaffected,  as  free  from  all  thought  of 
yourself,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  was,  then  indeed  will  you 
have  finished  manners.  What  if  there  were  a  few  acci- 
dental remnants  of  his  former  habits?  Of  all  the 
people  in  the  world,  we  are  the  very  last  that  should 
think  of  these. 

Just  now,  across  the  sea,  men  are  grieving  over  the 
death  of  a  plain  man  of  the  people  like  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, a  man  of  the  same  kind  of  manners,  a  man  bred  to 
the  plough,  and  whose  early  years  were  given  to  trade — 
Richard  Cobden.  And  not  merely  in  naturalness  of 
manners,  but  also  in  moral  elevation,  in  guileness  sin- 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  111 

cerity,  in  delicate  regard  for  the  feelings  even  of  en- 
emies, in  true  devotion  to  ttie  good  of  their  fellow  men 
especially  to  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  oppressed  and 
in  earnest  religious  faith  were  these  men  twin  brothers. 
Even  in  outward  look  there  was  a  marked  resemblance ; 
the  same  tenderness  of  eye,  the  same  pathetic  sadness 
of  general  expression,  and  the  same  lurking  smile  of 
humor. 

In  two  weeks  after  the  fall  of  Sumter  I  heard  the 
news  of  it  in  Paris.  Cobden  arrived  in  town  from 
Algiers,  I  think,  just  then.  Early  the  next  morning  I 
went  to  him  and  said,  "Are  you  enough  interested  in 
the  American  question  to  have  a  few  words?"  ''In- 
terested!" said  he,  "interested!"  and  the  tears  started 
to  his  eyes.  "My  God!  sir,  I  do  not  sleep  at  night!" 
We  then  talked  over  all  the  probable  phases  of  this 
great  question  and  its  tremendous  issues.  Never,  until 
I  came  home  and  sat  down  alone  with  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, as  I  had  sat  down  with  Richard  Cobden,  did  I 
know  how  much  alike  these  two  men  were.  How 
prophetic  is  it  of  the  near  coming  of  the  time  when  all 
the  sophisms  of  power,  by  which  a  few  have  held,  and 
are  still  striving  to  hold,  the  mass  of  mankind  in  their 
iron  grasp  to  make  them  the  tools  of  their  ambition 
and  avarice,  shall  be  swept  away  forever,  that  all  over 
the  earth,  in  palaces  as  well  as  in  hovels,  there  is 
mourning  over  Richard  Cobden  and  Abraham  Lincoln; 
men  that  worked  with  their  hands  and  yet  raised  them- 
selves higher  than  nobles;  precursors  of  that  triumph- 
ant Christian  civilization  that  is  yet  to  gladden  the 
hearts  of  all  mankind  with  the  reign  of  universal 
brotherhood.  In  seven  years  Cobden  bowed  the  neck  of 
the  proudest  aristocracy  in  the  world.     In  five  years 


112       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

Lincoln  destroyed  and  buried  the  most  cruel,  the  most 
dangerous  aristocracy  that  ever  sought  to  establish 
itself  in  a  civilized  nation.  The  two  representative 
men  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  have  passed  away  from 
earth  together. 

We  had  no  fear  about  Abraham  Lincoln,  except  the 
fear  that  he  would  be  too  forgiving.  Oh!  what  an 
epitaph — that  the  only  fear  men  had  was  that  he  would 
be  too  tender,  that  he  had  too  much  love;  in  a  word, 
that  he  was  too  Christ-like!  And  how  Christ-like  was 
he  in  dying !  His  last  oflScial  words  in  substance  were, 
"Father,  forgive  them,  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
And  on  Good  Friday  he  fell  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of 
humanity.  I  do  not  think  there  was  adequate  ground 
for  the  fear  that  he  would  ever  have  sacrificed  sub- 
stantial justice  upon  the  altar  of  his  personal  tender- 
ness; or,  that  he  had  not  the  strength  and  the  resolu- 
tion to  punish  the  authors  of  the  rebellion;  yet,  after 
all,  in  coming  ages,  it  shall  not  be  the  least  of  his  titles 
to  the  veneration  and  love  of  mankind,  that  his  com- 
peers found  no  fault  with  him,  except  that  he  had  too 
much  love. 

Last  Friday,  we  are  told,  President  Lincoln  asked 
General  Grant  if  he  had  heard  from  General  Sherman. 
General  Grant  replied  that  he  had  not;  but  that  he 
was  hourly  in  expectation  of  receiving  dispatches  an- 
nouncing the  surrender  of  Johnston.  "Well,"  said  the 
President,  "you  will  hear  very  soon  now,  and  the  news 
will  be  important."  "Why  do  you  think  so?"  said  the 
General.  "Because,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  had  a  dream 
last  night,  and  ever  since  the  war  began  I  have  inva- 
riably had  the  same  dream  before  any  important  event 
has  occurred."    He  then  instanced  Bull  Run,  Antietam, 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  113 

Gettysburg,  etc.,  and  said  that  before  each  of  those 
events  he  had  had  the  same  dream.  Turning  to  Secre- 
tary Welles,  he  said:  "It  is  in  your  line  too,  Mr.  Welles. 
I  dreamed  that  I  saw  a  ship  sailing  very  rapidly  by, 
and  I  am  sure  that  it  portends  some  important  national 
event."  Dear  friends,  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is 
closed.  After  a  very,  very  stormy  voyage,  the  ship  has 
reached  her  harbor  at  last.  And  how,  after  all  these 
tempests,  these  fierce  blasts,  these  rising  floods,  how 
did  the  ship  sail  in?  Shattered  and  sinking,  with  sails 
all  torn  and  rent?  No,  dear  friends,  God  ordered  it 
otherwise.  Not  a  mark  of  the  storm  was  on  the  noble 
vessel;  the  hull  was  sound,  the  spars  were  strong,  the 
sails  were  spread,  with  the  broad  flag  flying  again  as 
it  never  waved  before,  and  with  pennants  of  red,  white, 
and  blue  streaming  gloriously  and  triumphantly  over 
all,  the  ship  sailed  into  port,  and  the  angels  of  God  said 
their  glad  "All  hail !"  So  now  say  I — and  I  venture  to 
speak  in  your  behalf,  as  well  as  in  my  own — Abraham 
Lincoln,  Patriot,  Philanthropist,  Christian,  Martyr, 
Hail!  and  Farewell! 

And  now,  what  are  to  be  the  results  of  this  tragedy 
to  the  country  and  to  mankind?  It  is  God  that  rules, 
and  already  we  see  that,  even  in  this  terrible  crime,  he 
has  made  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him.  One  thing 
is  clear:  even  now  the  American  people  are  united  as 
they  were  never  united  before.  Four  years  ago  (or  it 
will  be  four  years  within  a  week),  in  1861,  I  stood  in 
Exeter  Hall  in  the  City  of  London,  with  an  audience 
of  nearly  four  thousand  people.  The  London  Times  of 
the  day  before  had  said,  "The  Great  Republic  is  gone." 
I  made  these  words  the  text  of  a  little  speech  to  these 
four  thousand  Englishmen.    I  ventured  to  say  to  them, 


114        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

what  in  my  heart  I  believed  to  be  true,  that  whatever 
miglit  be  the  result  of  civil  war  elsewhere,  aud  however 
a  single  battle  might  turn  in  the  United  States,  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  was  impregnable; 
that  the  great  Republic  would  come  forth  out  of  the 
trial  stronger  than  ever;  that  however  the  first  battle 
might  go,  we  should  win  the  last,  and  the  rebellion 
would  be  crushed.  It  is  but  right  to  say  that  these 
remarks  met  with  sympathy.  The  four  thousand 
people  that  sat  before  me  showed  every  sign  of  feel- 
ing; they  rose  from  their  seats,  they  clapped  their 
hands,  they  stamped  their  feet,  they  shouted.  The 
four  years  have  passed,  and  the  Republic  is  not  gone, 
thank  God,  but  stands  out  in  grander  proportions,  is 
established  upon  a  firmer  foundation  than  ever  before. 
In  the  four  days  that  have  passed  since  the  shot  that 
laid  Abraham  Lincoln  low,  the  work  of  fifty  years  in  the 
consolidation  of  the  Republic  has  been  done.  The 
morning  of  the  same  day  that  saw  one  President  die, 
saw  another  quietly  inaugurated  and  as  quietly  per- 
forming his  functions.  True,  there  were  a  few  men 
in  Wall  Street  who  seemed  to  look  upon  it  as  the  har- 
binger of  a  golden  harvest;  men  who,  if  allowed  by 
any  chance  to  pass  the  gates  of  the  Celestial  City, 
would  go  with  their  eyes  bent  downward  studying  some 
plan  to  pluck  up  the  golden  pavement.  Naturally 
enough,  these  men  mistook  the  mighty  import  of  pass- 
ing events  and  bought  gold  for  a  rise.  On  Monday  gold 
was  ten  per  cent  lower  than  on  Saturday. 

Another  lesson  we  have  learned  is  this :  that  in  our 
Government  no  one  man  is  essential.  The  Harpers 
have  just  published  a  book  by  Louis  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte on  the  life  of  Julius  Caesar.    Its  object  is  to  teach 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  115 

the  world  that  it  must  be  governed  by  its  great  men; 
that  they  make  epochs  and  not  merely  mark  them. 
How  suddenly  that  book  has  been  refuted,  and  what 
a  blow  has  been  given  to  this  gospel  of  Napoleon,  by 
the  assassination  of  Lincoln  and  its  issues.  Here  is 
one  greater  than  Caesar  struck  down  as  Caesar  was, 
and  yet  the  pillars  of  the  Republic  are  unshaken.  What 
a  pitiful  anachronism  does  the  Imperial  plea  for 
Caesarism  appear,  in  presence  of  the  dead  Lincoln,  and 
the  mourning,  yet  living  and  triumphant  Republic! 

Let  us  now  gather  one  or  two  practical  lessons  for 
ourselves  and  our  children.  Hatred  of  assassination 
is  one  of  these  lessons,  if,  indeed,  we  needed  to  learn 
it.  The  work  that  Brutus  did  to  Caesar  was  just  as 
bad  a  work  as  that  of  Booth  to  Lincoln.  It  was  cen- 
turies before  humanity  recovered  from  the  poisoned 
wound  it  received  from  the  stroke  from  that  dagger 
that  pierced  the  breast  of  Caesar.  Teach  your  children, 
moreover,  not  only  to  hate  assassination,  but  treason 
as  well;  for  treason  breeds  assassins,  as  it  breeds  all 
other  forms  of  crime  and  wrong.  You  cannot  be  too 
severe  upon  it  in  your  thoughts  or  in  your  talk;  you 
are  severe  upon  the  robber  and  the  assassin;  shall  you 
be  lenient  toward  the  treason  which  has  begotten 
both  robbery  and  assassination? 

Remember,  too,  that  as  treason  is  the  parent  of 
assassination,  so  slavery  has  been  the  parent  of  treason. 
Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  exhort  you  to  teach  your  chil- 
dren to  hate  slavery  too?  In  this  one  thing  I  ask  you 
to  join  with  me  this  day.  Let  us  bow  ourselves  before 
Almighty  God,  and  vow  that  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  none 
of  us  will  ever  agree  to  any  pacification  of  this  land, 
until    slavery    be    utterly    extirpated.      Watch    your 


IIG        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

editors  then;  watch  your  clergy;  watch  your  generals 
and  soldiers,  your  admirals  and  sailors,  watch  even 
Andrew  Johnson,  though  of  that  I  apprehend  there 
will  be  no  need.  Watch  them  all,  if  need  be,  and  see 
to  it  that  this  sprout  of  hell  never  shoots  up  again  in 
the  American  soil. 

One  more  lesson,  and  not  the  least.  If  anything  I 
have  said,  or  anything  that  you  read  or  hear  in  these 
sad  days,  breeds  within  you  a  single  revengeful  feeling, 
even  toward  the  leaders  of  this  rebellion,  then  think 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  pray  God  to  make  you  merci- 
ful. Think  of  the  prayer  of  Christ,  which  the  President 
said,  after  his  Saviour,  "Father  forgive  them,  they 
know  not  what  they  do."  Let  there  be  no  place  for 
revenge  in  our  souls ;  justice  we  may  and  must  demand, 
but  revenge,  never.  "Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay, 
saith  the  Lord."  I  counsel  you  also  to  discountenance 
all  disorder,  all  attempts  by  private  persons  to  avenge 
the  public  wrong,  or  even  to  punish  sympathizers  with 
treason.  I  have  been  sorry  to  hear  from  the  lips  of 
generous  young  men,  under  the  pangs  of  the  President's 
assassination,  sentiments  of  bitterness  and  indignation, 
amounting  almost  to  fierceness.  It  is  natural,  no 
doubt,  but  what  is  natural  is  not  always  right.  Indulge 
this  spirit,  and  you  may  hear  next  that  this  man's 
house  or  that  man's  should  be  mobbed.  Mobs  are  alien 
to  our  northern  soil ;  they  belong  to  another  atmosphere 
than  that  of  free  schools  and  free  men.  The  region  of 
slavery  was  their  natural  home;  let  us  have  none  of 
them.  And  soon,  when  the  last  shackles  shall  have 
fallen,  and  throughout  our  land,  from  sea  to  sea,  there 
shall  be  no  master  and  no  slave,  the  blessed  Peace  shall 
come,  for  which  we  have  looked,  and  prayed,  and  fought 


JOHN  McCLINTOCK  117 

so  long,  when  the  Republic  shall  be  established  upon 
the  eternal  foundations  of  Freedom  and  Justice,  to 
stand,  we  trust,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  down  to  the  last 
syllable  of  recorded  Time. 


VII 
REV.  A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN,  D.D. 

"Know  ye  not  there  is  a  prince  and  a  great  man  fallen  this 
day  In  Israel?"— 2  Sam.  3.  38. 

Brethren,  you  know  the  event  which  has  called  us 
together  amid  these  badges  of  sorrow.  All  sights  and 
sounds  proclaim  it.  The  very  air  is  full  of  it.  Its 
mingled  horror  and  sadness  may  not  be  uttered.  The 
grief  that  hangs  so  heavy  upon  us  moves  a  continent  to 
tears.  We  are  but  a  small  company  of  mourners  in 
the  vast  multitude  who  will  to-day  bend  in  anguish  over 
the  bier  of  the  nation's  head.  We  were  just  beginning 
to  see  the  bow  of  peace  wearing  out  from  the  vapor 
and  settling  over  the  troubled  waters.  We  were  just 
beginning  to  feel  that  the  last  chapter  had  been  written 
in  the  record  of  blood.  The  disappointment  is  bitter 
and  terrible.  Without  question  we  have  at  last  reached 
the  Marah  of  the  nation's  journey  through  the  wilder- 
ness. The  sword  that  was  to  pierce  us  through,  God 
has  reserved  for  the  hour  of  victory.  The  land  is  a 
fountain  of  tears,  and  the  hearts  of  the  people  are 
bowed  as  the  heart  of  one  man.  There  could  be  no 
sorer  lamentation,  though  every  house  had  in  it  one 
dead.  It  is  made  the  duty  of  the  pulpit,  beyond  any 
other  organ  of  public  sentiment,  to  deal  with  the  over- 
whelming sorrow  of  the  hour,  to  guide  and  temper  the 

118 


A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN  119 

nation's  grief,  to  teach  it  how  and  for  what  to  weep,  to 
interpret  the  sober  philosophy  of  the  grave,  and  to 
press  home  upon  the  softened,  pain-stricken  sensibil- 
ities of  the  people  those  gifts,  privileges,  and  destinies 
which  the  world  can  neither  give  nor  take  away.  Cer- 
tainly our  century,  with  all  its  intense  and  changeful 
life,  has  witnessed  no  such  impressive  instance  of  the 
sudden  ruin  and  intrinsic  vanity  of  earthly  fortunes 
in  the  high  places  of  power.  Yesterday,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln stood  upon  an  eminence  which  the  wisest  and  the 
best  might  have  envied.  His  word  was  clothed  with  the 
force  of  law.  His  hand  was  upon  the  secret  spring  of 
a  nation's  energies.  His  opinions  were  scanned  and 
weighed  as  the  foreshadowing  of  the  settled  policy  of 
a  redintegrated  republic.  On  his  will  and  purpose 
largely  depended  the  peace  of  the  world.  He  had  but 
to  speak,  and  two  continents  gave  him  audience.  To- 
day, he  is  still  in  death.  He  lies  where  each  of  us  must 
lie.  He  fills  no  more  space  than  that  allotted  to  the 
humblest  member  of  the  race.  Yesterday,  he  was  of 
good  cheer  at  the  approaching  reward  of  four  years  of 
honest,  anxious,  patriotic  toil,  with  an  outlook  upon 
honors  manifold,  and  with  an  assured  release  from  the 
bitterness  of  days  of  darkness  and  fields  of  blood,  his 
own  unexultant  but  manly  smile  reflecting  the  pro- 
found joy  of  a  redeemed  and  triumphant  country.  To- 
day, he  is  gone  as  the  rest  of  us  shall  go,  to  give  account 
of  his  stewardship  to  God.  Alas !  the  brevity  and  uncer- 
tainty of  the  noblest  earthly  career !  Let  us  know  and 
feel  that  we  can  mourn  intelligently  over  this  terrible 
bereavement  only  as  we  shall  individually  see  in  it  a 
new  and  more  pointed  admonition  from  our  final  Judge. 
The  deed  which  has  deprived  the  land  of  its  Chief 


120        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

Magistrate  and,  perhaps,  the  Department  of  State  of 
its  illustrious  incumbent,  let  us  not  hesitate  to  say,  was 
worthy  of  the  cause  which  has  filled  the  land  with 
widows  and  orphans — a  cause  conceived  in  wicked- 
ness, brought  forth  in  iniquity,  and  consummated  in 
a  crime  which  shall  live  forever  as  the  sufficient  com- 
mentary upon  the  spirit  that  gave  it  being.  Under  no 
provocation  should  we  be  tempted  to  harshness  and 
injustice.  But  it  is  neither  harsh  nor  unjust — but  the 
simple  truth  gradually  forced  upon  us  by  the  stern 
logic  of  events — to  say  that  the  murderous  hand  which 
has  brought  upon  us  this  stupendous  calamity  is,  in 
reality,  the  same  hand  which  wielded  the  merciless  lash 
upon  unresisting  victims  whose  cry  there  was  none 
to  hear — the  same  hand  which,  tutored  into  lawless 
violence  by  the  cruel  and  arbitrary  instincts  of  slavery, 
struck  down  a  senator  of  New  England  for  presuming 
to  exercise  freedom  of  speech — the  same  hand  which 
kindled  and  led  an  unprovoked  and  suicidal  rebellion 
against  the  mildest  and  freest  of  governments — which 
hung  and  slaughtered  in  cold  blood  thousands  who 
remained  faithful  to  their  allegiance,  and  occupied 
itself  at  intervals  with  the  torture  and  starvation  of 
the  captured  in  prison  camps  and  noisome  dungeons. 
There  is  no  help  for  it.  Charity  itself  can  invent  no 
sufficient  mitigation  of  the  fact.  This  crime  must  go 
into  history  as  the  legitimate  embodiment  of  the  spirit 
of  that  greater  and  once  legalized — protected  crime  of 
oppression  which,  by  the  decree  of  God,  has  been  swept 
away,  and  the  very  traces  of  it  surged  out  by  fire, 
battle,  and  blood.  It  seems  as  though  the  last  bite  of 
the  serpent  was  needed  to  convince  us  of  its  incurable 
and  dreadful  venom.    Henceforth  slavery  will  have  no 


A.  K  LITTLEJOHN  121 

apologist  in  the  court  of  the  world's  civilization.  The 
mark  of  Cain  is  upon  it,  and  no  hand  will  be  found 
bold  enough  to  brave  the  infamy  of  attempting  to  hide 
it.  Consigned  at  last  to  the  gulf  of  perdition,  with  a 
wild  and  heartless  malice,  it  sought  to  drag  down  with 
it  all  that  lay  within  its  reach.  It  has  perished  in  a 
way  to  satisfy  the  proprieties  of  retributive  justice. 
Its  end  is  not  merely  ruin,  but  dishonor.  Its  name  will 
rot  with  the  bones  of  the  assassin  who  directed  its  last 
blow.  And,  hereafter,  though  the  common  life  of  the 
Republic  shall  be  freed  from  its  insult,  menace,  treason, 
and  atrocity;  yet  trumpet-tongued  it  will  continue  to 
bear  witness  through  the  ages,  by  a  thousand  scars,  to 
the  malignant  and  tremendous  power  of  the  demon  that 
once  possessed  it. 

In  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  people  who 
have  been  in  arms  against  the  national  authority,  and 
who  will  soon  be  sueing  for  mercy,  have  lost  their 
wisest  and  truest  friend.  They  have  lost  one  who,  be- 
yond any  other  man  in  oflScial  position,  was  ready  to 
pity  their  desolation,  to  commiserate  their  folly,  and 
to  receive  them  back  as  prodigal  sons.  They  have  lost 
one  who  had  already  anticipated  and  given  expression 
to  the  latent  magnanimity  and  clemency  of  the  national 
mind.  They  have  lost  one  who  would  have  spared  no 
efifort,  consistent  with  the  public  safety  and  honor,  to 
enable  them  to  retrieve  their  broken  fortunes,  and 
renew  at  the  common  altar  their  plighted  faith. 

But  if  they  from  whom  we  have  been  estranged  dur- 
ing these  four  years  of  conflict,  have  lost  so  much  by 
this  calamity,  what  shall  be  said  of  our  own  loss.  Say 
what  we  will,  interpret  Providence  as  we  may,  it  can- 
jiot  be   exaggerated.     Happily   party   differences   no 


122        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

longer  stand  in  the  way  of  a  suitable  recognition  of  the 
transcendent  services  of  our  late  Chief  Magistrate.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  any  instance  can  be  cited,  in 
which  the  mists  of  prejudice  have  so  suddenly  parted, 
only  to  reveal  behind  them  a  fame  so  free  from  chal- 
lenge or  disparagement.  Certainly  history  furnishes 
no  case  in  which  death  has  so  instantly  invested  its 
victim  with  the  sanctity  of  an  approval  more  sponta- 
neous and  universal.  The  character  of  this  man  had 
grown  so  evenly,  so  silently,  and  from  such  modest 
beginnings ;  it  had  borne  vast  burdens,  wrought  mighty 
issues,  with  so  little  friction;  it  had  sent  its  root  so 
deep  into  the  core  of  our  life,  that  we  knew  neither 
what  it  was  to  us,  nor  how  large  it  was  destined  to 
appear  in  coming  time,  until  death  spread  out  before 
us  the  quiet  and  solemn  shadow  of  its  proportion.  The 
work  of  the  public  mind  in  dealing  with  this  character, 
since  it  has  taken  its  place  in  the  sphere  of  the  un- 
changeable has  been  that  of  recognition,  not  of  discov- 
ery. We  say  to-day  only  what  we  might  have  said  a 
week  ago,  but  for  the  reserve  with  which  the  living 
must  always  be  spoken  of.  The  same  pure,  simple, 
honest,  incorruptible,  large-brained  force  of  will  and 
conscience  that  we  see  to-day,  and  whose  departure  we 
mourn  as  something  not  likely  to  be  replaced,  has  been 
toiling  for  us  all  through  these  recent  years  of  doubt 
and  peril.  We  saw  it,  and  yet  feared  to  speak  too 
strongly  of  it,  lest  some  flaw  or  soil  should  appear 
before  its  career  should  close.  But  now  that  its  record 
is  made  up,  we  may  love,  revere,  and  praise  in  language 
which,  before,  might  have  seemed  that  of  partial  ad- 
miration. 

History,  when  it  shall  give  its  final  verdict,  may 


iA..  N.  LITTLEJOHN  123 

modify,  in  some  particulars,  the  glowing  eulogies  of  the 
hour.  It  may  be  that  the  nation  under  the  impulse  of 
sudden  and  profound  grief,  may  claim  too  much  for 
this  man  of  the  people.  But  this  much  is  sure,  he  will 
go  forever  into  their  memory,  and  the  seal  will  be 
immovably  set  upon  it — that  never  have  they  had  in 
that  highest  and  most  responsible  position,  an  upright- 
ness more  unquestioned,  a  wisdom  more  balanced, 
luminous,  and  practical,  a  generosity  more  lofty,  a 
patriotism  more  ardent,  a  cheerfulness  more  patient, 
a  purpose  more  brave  in  the  day  of  trouble,  or  a  conse- 
cration of  talent  and  energy  to  the  common  weal  more 
absolute.  All  agree  that  his  heart  was  too  open  and 
large  to  harbor  a  mean  or  selfish  intent.  And  as  for 
anger  and  revenge  under  immense  provocation,  none 
need  be  told  that  they  found  no  place  in  word  or  deed. 
No  ruler  was  ever  more  reluctant  to  strike,  even  when 
crime  crossed  his  path  and  demanded  the  blow.  There 
is  scarcely  an  infirmity  imparted  to  him  by  the  most 
unsparing  criticism,  which  was  not  traceable  to  a  cer- 
tain gentleness  of  spirit,  which,  however  harsh  and 
knotty  wills  that  "make  haste  to  the  hangman's  oflBce" 
may  sneer  at,  will  be  accounted  hereafter,  in  calmer 
days,  as  the  only  flower  of  Paradise  that  was  able  to 
float  on  this  sea  of  blood. 

There  are  some  who  scruple  to  call  Mr.  Lincoln 
great.  We  are  not  among  them.  If  he  was  not  great, 
then,  by  some  strange  fortune,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to 
achieve  results  hitherto  deemed  possible  only  to  the 
highest  order  of  faculty.  If  he  was  not  great,  history 
will  have  its  most  startling  wonder  to  record.  It  will 
have  to  show  how  an  ordinary  man  wrought  the  most 
extraordinary  things  in  a  sphere  of  action  where  per- 


124        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

sonal  character  and  oflScial  influence  are  subject  to  the 
severest  scrutiny.  It  will  have  to  show  how  something 
less  than  greatness  did  what  conceded  greatness  has 
always  pronounced  most  difficult.  The  nation,  at  this 
hour,  grudges  not  to  own  him  great.  There  is  a  wisdom 
in  the  popular  instinct  which  adjusts  sorrow  to  the 
sense  of  loss.  Judged  by  this  rule  there  can  be  no  doubt 
where  the  common  mind  of  the  country  places  this 
man.  There  were  qualities,  gifts,  enrichments,  which 
he  lacked.  He  had  not  the  severe  dignity  of  Washing- 
ton, nor  the  acumen  and  breadth  of  Hamilton,  nor  the 
versatility  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  He  had  not  the 
electric  eloquence  of  Clay,  nor  the  matchless  finish  of 
of  Everett,  nor  the  massive  strength  of  Webster.  And 
yet  there  was  in  him  a  fullness,  ripeness,  directness  of 
power,  which  if  measured  by  what  it  did  will  prove  him 
inferior  to  none  of  the  illustrious  names  gone  before 
him.  There  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  what  was  really 
in  him,  for  he  pretended  to  nothing  which  he  had  not, 
and  concealed  nothing  that  he  had.  His  simplicity  and 
candor  made  him  appear  less  than  he  was.  He  spoke 
and  acted  with  such  absence  of  parade,  that  all  who  did 
not  weigh  him  well  thought  him  an  honest  mediocrity, 
plodding  slowly  toward  a  great  end.  The  cheerful  ease 
with  which  he  mastered  the  most  intricate  questions 
of  the  time,  deceived  all  but  those  nearest  to  him  as  to 
the  magnitude  of  his  labors.  He  made  no  claim  to  elo- 
quence. All  the  more  striking  attributes  of  the  orator 
were  wanting.  And  yet,  in  his  plain,  strong  way  he 
said  things — as  when  he  stood  over  the  heroic  dead  at 
Gettysburg — which  the  world  will  never  forget.  As  a 
writer  he  was  singularly  deficient  in  the  ordinary 
graces  of  style.     And  yet  he  has  left  State  Papers 


A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN  125 

which  will  be  regarded  hereafter  as  the  ablest  exposi- 
tions of  the  momentous  issues  of  our  time.  The  elabora- 
tion bestowed  by  those  in  quest  of  fame  upon  the  vehicle 
of  thought,  he  bestowed  upon  the  thought  itself.  Desti- 
tute of  methodical  training,  utterly  without  what  is 
technically  known  as  culture,  there  was  that  in  his 
handling  of  obscure  and  complicated  subjects  which 
evinced  the  finest  fruit  of  careful  intellectual  discipline. 
He  never  said  anything  that  would  imply  that  he 
thought  himself  a  man  of  courage  or  inclined  to  self- 
sacrifice  on  behalf  of  imperiled  principle;  but  there  are 
none  who  knew  him  well  that  will  not  at  once  accord 
him  all  the  moral  qualities  of  the  true  hero.  No  man, 
perhaps,  ever  had  a  career  which,  taken  in  its  whole 
length,  was  better  calculated  to  invite  vanity,  boast- 
ing, and  self-sufficiency;  or  to  develop  the  small  weak- 
nesses which,  with  most  men,  follow  in  the  wake  of 
rapid  and  unexpected  success.  But  the  keenest  eye 
fails  to  detect  in  him  the  traces  of  such  qualities.  His 
modesty  and  humility  kept  pace  with  his  rising  emi- 
nence. And  of  him  it  can  be  said  truly — and  nothing 
could  be  more  wonderful — that  such  was  the  habitual 
gentleness — such  the  native,  robust  magnanimity  of 
his  character — such  his  incorruptible  fairness,  that, 
amid  all  the  fiery  strifes  and  clashing  factions  of  a 
period  of  tumult  and  revolution,  he  never  alienated  a 
friend,  or  justly  made  an  enemy. 

The  word  greatness  is  variable  and  elastic.  It  is 
often  a  term  of  comparison  conveying  no  absolute 
meaning.  It  covers  all  degrees  of  power  from  that  of 
confessed  genius  down  to  that  of  commonplace,  but 
successful  talent.  Still,  loose  and  vague  as  may  be  the 
use  of  the  word,  it  has,  after  all,  a  very  definite  signifl- 


126        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

cation  to  the  settled  judgment  of  mankind.  There  are 
certain  tests — certain  properties  of  character  which, 
wherever  they  are  found,  assert  the  presence  of  true 
greatness,  and  secure  for  It,  in  the  critical  estimate  of 
the  world,  the  attribute  of  immortality.  I  shall  name 
some  of  these  tests  and  properties,  and  then  inquire 
how  they  were  answered  in  the  character  and  career  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

1st.  It  is  a  proof  of  greatness  to  discharge  immense 
responsibilities  in  times  of  change  and  peril,  and  to 
hand  over  a  trust  of  extraordinary  powers  without 
even  the  suspicion  of  failure  or  abuse.  There  can  be 
no  question  that  Mr.  Lincoln  met  this  test  as  com- 
pletely as  any  ruler  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  He 
parted  with  power  with  less  regret  than  he  received  it. 
It  had  no  attractions  to  him.  It  stirred  no  ambition, 
tempted  to  no  self-aggrandizement,  awoke  no  dreams 
of  dynastic  fame.  No  one  in  high  oflSce  could  be  more 
scrupulous  to  mark  the  rightful  limitations  of  author- 
ity, or  more  reluctant  to  overpass  them  under  the 
pressure  of  danger  to  the  national  life. 

2nd.  It  is  an  evidence  of  greatness  to  lead  and  to 
fashion,  amid  all  possible  elements  of  hazard  and  con- 
vulsion, an  era  of  transcendent  success  in  the  life  of 
empires  or  republics.  Without  controversy,  we  find 
this  in  the  character  and  administration  of  this  man. 
He  began  his  work  amid  disadvantages  which  never 
can  be  adequately  estimated.  He  encountered  diflS- 
culties  which  would  have  utterly  overwhelmed  a  will 
less  patient,  cheerful  and  self-poised  than  his  own. 
And  yet  the  civic  and  military  achievements  of  the 
Government  over  which  he  presided  have  never  been 
surpassed.     The  contrast  between  the  commencement 


A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN  127 

and  the  close  of  his  administration  will  be  one  of  the 
wonders  of  history.  When  it  began  one  half  the 
country  was  abhize  with  the  flame  of  rebellion,  and  the 
other  half  was  dumb  with  perplexity  and  the  sense  of 
coming  disaster.  There  was  not  only  the  division  of 
geographical  sections,  but  the  division  of  heteroge- 
neous races  and  clashing  social  institutions.  It  was  an 
open  question  whether  the  will  of  a  single  part  should 
override  or  obey  the  sovereign  will  of  the  whole  body — 
whether  the  nation  was  only  a  heap  of  atoms  or  an 
organic  force.  In  the  Old  World,  where  it  was  believed 
that  our  trouble  would  develop  sympathy,  if  not  friend- 
ship, we  found  only  envy  of  our  growth,  fear  of  our 
strength,  and  studied  predictions  of  our  failure  and 
ruin.  Western  Europe  was  rejoicing  that  the  day  had 
come  for  writing  the  epitaph  of  republics.  How 
changed  all  this  when  Mr.  Lincoln's  career  closed. 
He  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  tokens  of  returning 
peace,  the  defeat  and  surrender  of  hostile  armies,  the 
closing  up  of  the  terrible  wound  upon  the  nation's  life, 
the  utter  destruction  of  the  political  heresy  that  had 
plunged  the  land  in  fratricidal  blood,  the  fusion  into 
a  more  compact  and  homogeneous  unity  of  diverse 
races,  the  confession  of  all  nations  that  the  Republic 
had  triumphed,  and  the  joy  of  the  oppressed  throughout 
the  world  over  another  mighty  advance  of  liberty  and 
justice  in  the  affairs  of  the  race. 

3rd.  It  belongs  to  the  highest  order  of  mind  and 
character  to  mould  and  govern  the  opinions  of  a  free 
people.  This,  Abraham  Lincoln  did  as  few  have  done 
before  him.  He  mastered  and  directed  public  senti- 
ment upon  the  most  vital  questions.  He  did  it  fairly, 
conclusively,  permanently.    With  a  skill  and  prescience 


128        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

which  will  challenge  the  admiration  of  posterity,  he 
gathered  up  and  crystallized  the  fluid  thought  of  the 
masses  into  the  statesmanship  and  policy  of  the  hour. 
His  success  on  this  difficult  task  was  due,  in  the  main, 
to  marked  peculiarities  of  intellect  and  administration. 
He  had  no  theories,  no  pet  fancies,  no  schemes  with 
which  be  believed  his  fame  identified.  He  was  not  a 
bookish  statesman.  He  had  no  historic  idols.  No 
school  of  political  thought  could  wholly  claim  him. 
He  studied  all  questions  demanding  his  decision  under 
the  light  of  facts.  His  course  waited  upon  events.  His 
policy  grew  naturally  out  of  the  emergencies  around 
him.  His  wisdom  was  of  the  sort  which  neglects  no 
fact,  but  gives  to  each  its  proper  force.  He  knew  how 
to  walk  with  the  people,  and  yet  to  assert  his  function 
as  a  leader  and  prophet.  The  time  was  when  some 
believed  him  slow,  timid  and  vacillating.  Results  have 
shown  that  he  was  only  patient,  cautious  and  compre- 
hensive; and  that  the  hot,  hasty  wills  who  judged  him 
lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  fog  and  confusion.  We  have 
had  no  statesman  of  whom  it  can  be  so  truly  said,  that 
he  was,  in  the  work  that  fell  to  him,  so  wise  an  imitator 
of  the  developing,  sanative  forces  of  Nature  and  Provi- 
dence, whose  great  law  it  is  to  be  progressively  con- 
servative and  conservatively  progressive. 

4th.  It  is  a  quality  of  greatness  to  win  and  to  hold 
in  high  station  and  amid  days  of  change  and  peril  the 
confidence  of  millions.  In  this  Mr.  Lincoln  was  pre- 
eminent. No  case  can  be  named  in  which  a  vast  people 
surrendered  into  the  hands  of  their  ruler  more  of  their 
lives,  fortunes,  and  destinies,  and  yet  were  freer 
from  doubt,  suspicion,  or  complaint.  In  the  darkest 
hour  of  the  four  years  past,  whatever  else  might  give 


A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN  129 

way,  there  was  no  change  or  abatement  of  the  popular 
trust  in  their  head. 

5th.  It  has  always  been  reckoned  a  mark  of  great- 
ness to  preserve  an  original,  uncorrupted  individuality 
amid  the  frictions  and  abrasions  of  a  rulership  which 
makes  the  incumbent  the  depositary  of  all  men's 
notions,  the  prey  of  flatterers,  deceivers  and  parasites, 
the  victim  of  the  menace  or  the  blandishments  of  a 
dominant  party.  Who  has  shown  this  mark  of  great- 
ness more  clearly  than  this  man?  The  day  he  died  he 
was  no  other  than  he  was  when  he  left  his  home  for  the 
capitol — save  in  knowledge,  experience,  trial,  service, 
and  suffering.  He  was  ever  so  truly  himself  that 
custom  could  not  alter,  conventionality  could  not  spoil, 
fashion  could  not  beguile  him.  Faction,  with  its  secret 
schemes,  put  its  teeth  on  a  file  when  it  struck  his 
simple,  healthy,  honest  will.  And  court  sycophants 
found  their  occupation  gone,  as  there  was  in  him  abso- 
lutely no  vanity,  or  private  ambition  to  work  upon. 

Gth.  It  is  the  effect  of  a  great  man's  life  to  enrich 
by  character,  deeds,  and  sufferings,  the  annals  of  a 
people,  and  to  multiply  their  traditions  of  endurance, 
heroism,  and  triumph.  In  this  our  late  President,  by 
general  consent,  will  rank  second  only  to  Washington. 

7th,  and  finally.  The  sovereign  and  unchallenged  test 
of  greatness,  as  adjudged  by  all  nations  and  ages,  is 
to  complete  service  by  sacrifice;  to  attest  by  death 
what  was  toiled  and  fought  for  in  life;  to  add  the 
martyr's  crown  to  the  patriot's  work.  This  alone  was 
needed  to  round  out  and  immortalize  Abraham  Lincoln. 
God  gave  him  the  baptism  of  blood,  as  he  had  already 
given  it  to  the  cause  which  he  represented,  and  so 
translated  him  into  the  list  of  the  world's  leaders, 


130        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

deliverers,  emancipators,  who  plead  more  mightily 
from  their  graves  than  living  rulers  from  the  seats  of 
power.  Let  us  not  doubt,  then,  that  a  great  man  has 
I)assed  from  us  into  history,  and  joined  the  powers 
which  cannot  die.  Let  us  not  doubt  that  our  time  of 
sorrow  has  brought  forth  a  character  worthy  to  en- 
shrine its  immortal  issue.  This  man  has  gone  from 
us.  He  needs  no  other  monument  than  the  race  whom 
he  led  forth  from  bondage,  and  the  country  saved, 
under  God,  by  his  guidance.  He  has  been  followed  to 
his  grave  by  such  majesty  and  sincerity  of  grief  as 
never  yet  waited  upon  king  or  conqueror,  and  his  mem- 
ory may  be  safely  left  to  the  keeping  of  all  lands  and 
ages. 

We  have  lost  the  mortal.  We  have  gained  the  im- 
mortal. We  have  lost  a  Chief  Magistrate.  We  have 
gained  one  who  shall  henceforth  be  known  among  the 
world's  benefactors.  We  have  lost  a  virtue  subject  to 
change.  We  have  gained  a  virtue  which  shall  be  the 
same  until  the  heavens  shall  be  no  more.  We  have  lost 
a  voice  that  might  have  faltered  and  a  will  that  might 
have  fallen  away  from  its  task.  We  have  gained  both, 
exalted  and  consecrated  to  a  wider  and  nobler  mission. 
We  have  lost  a  rare  combination  of  gifts.  May  it  not 
be  that  we  have  gained  another,  which,  in  view  of 
emergencies  yet  to  come,  shall  prove  the  foresight  and 
adaptation  of  God's.  We  have  lost  a  man  built  up  into 
greatness  by  the  institutions  of  liberty  and  law.  We 
shall  gain  another  proof  of  the  power  of  those  institu- 
tions to  repair  all  damage  and  waste  in  the  life  com- 
mitted to  their  keeping. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  man,  his  character,  career,  and 
services;   I   have  sketched  his   place  in  history,  and 


A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN  131 

shown  why  the  gratitude  and  love  of  this  bereaved 
people  should  cherish  and  venerate  his  name.  Permit 
me,  in  conclusion,  to  indicate  what  God  teaches  us  in 
this  sorrow.  Once  more  he  admonishes  us  that  our 
strength  is  not  in  chariots  or  horses,  or  men  of  war, 
or  an  arm  of  flesh.  Once  more  he  tells  us  that  in  the 
development  of  his  plans  there  is  no  necessary  man. 
Again  he  interposes  to  check  the  instinctive  gravitation 
of  mankind  toward  great  personalities,  and  to  strike 
at  the  root  of  all  civic  and  military  idolatries  engen- 
dered by  illustrious  fortune  or  commanding  genius. 
Again  he  shifts  from  shoulder  to  shoulder  the  mantle 
of  the  ruler,  the  statesman,  the  conqueror,  the  prophet, 
to  show  us  that  it  is  only  in  his  wisdom  and  might  that 
we  can  safely  glory.  "The  earth  is  weak  and  all  the 
inhabitants  thereof.  I  bear  up  the  pillars  of  it."  "God 
is  the  Judge.  He  putteth  down  one  and  setteth  up  an- 
other." Once  more,  too,  amid  the  far-sounding  joy  and 
the  waving  of  multitudinous  banners,  he  suddenly 
opens  at  our  feet  the  path  of  humiliation  winding  on 
into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death.  Thus,  by  a 
calamity  and  bereavement  which  have  pierced  the  com- 
mon heart,  he  has  seen  fit  to  set  up  another  check  to 
the  pride  and  self-confidence  of  a  great  people  flushed 
with  victory.  May  these  admonitions  not  be  in  vain. 
May  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  so  poured 
out  to-day  upon  the  weeping,  prostrate  millions  of  this 
land  "that  peace  and  happiness,  truth  and  justice,  reli- 
gion and  piety,  may  be  established  among  us  for  all 
generations." 


VIII 

EEV.  THEODORE  L.  CUYLER* 

"And  the  Lord  blessed  Abraham  in  all  things." — Gen.  24.  1. 

A  FEW  hours  since,  I  came  home  from  witnessing  the 
resurrection  of  the  flag  over  Sumter's  walls,  and  on  our 
way  the  arrow  of  fatal  tidings  met  lis  and  pierced  us 
through.  I  came  in  tears  to  find  you  all  in  tears.  And 
to-day  I  only  seek  to  give  utterance,  in  the  broken  lan- 
guage of  grief,  to  the  artless,  spontaneous  outgush  of 
our  every  heart.  "I  cannot  see  to  read  in  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,"  said  Christopher  North  to  his 
class,  when  he  returned  to  them  their  essays  unread, 
a  few  days  after  the  death  of  his  wife.  Nor  could  I 
see  to  write  under  the  shadow  of  this  overwhelming 
sorrow.  Let  me,  in  the  most  unstudied  language,  just 
talk  to  you  about  that  dear  departed  father,  whose 
form  lies  but  a  few  leagues  ofif  to-day,  on  its  way  to  the 
burial. 

It  is  more  than  two  centuries  since  the  civilized 
world  has  received  a  shock  like  this.  I  open  the  page 
of  history  and  read,  that  on  the  10th  of  July,  1584, 
William  the  Silent,  the  founder  of  the  Dutch  Republic, 
was  passing  from  his  dining-hall  to  his  private  apart- 
ments, attended  by  his  wife.  Near  the  stairway  was 
an  obscure  arch  sunk  deep  in  the  wall,  and  almost 


♦The  above  report  of  an  extemporaneous  discourae,  delivered  in  the  Lafayette 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  on  April  23,  is  mainly  recalled  from  memory. 

132 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  133 

hidden  from  view.  The  Prince  of  Orange  had  just 
reached  the  second  of  the  flight  of  stairs,  when  a  hired 
assassin  darted  out  from  the  dark  archway,  and  stand- 
ing within  a  few  feet  of  the  prince,  discharged  a  pistol 
at  his  heart.  Three  balls  entered  his  body;  one  of 
them  rebounded  even  from  the  wall  beyond!  William 
exclaimed,  as  he  felt  the  wound,  "Oh!  my  God,  have 
mercy  upon  this  poor  people!"  In  a  few  moments 
he  breathed  his  last  in  the  arms  of  his  faithful  wife, 
Louisa  of  Coligny. 

Gerard,  the  assassin,  dashed  out  of  a  side  door  and 
endeavored  to  make  his  escape  by  a  narrow  lane  to  a 
spot  where  a  horse  stood  in  waiting  for  him.  He 
stumbled  over  a  pile  of  rubbish  in  his  path,  and  before 
he  could  rise  again  he  was  seized  by  several  halberdiers 
who  had  followed  him  from  the  house.  He  was  brought 
at  once  before  the  magistrates,  was  subjected  to  the 
most  excruciating  tortures,  and  in  a  few  days  was  con- 
demned to  die  under  the  terrible  triple  agonies  of  burn- 
ing, quartering,  and  decapitation. 

No  one  can  read  the  narrative  of  the  murder  of  the 
deliverer  of  Holland,  without  being  amazed  at  the  coin- 
cidence between  the  crime  of  Balthazar  Gerard  and 
the  crime  of  the  brutal  Booth.  One  could  almost  be- 
lieve that  the  American  miscreant  had  learned  his 
horrible  part  from  the  Burgundian  fanatic.  The  lofty 
and  magnanimous  character  of  the  two  illustrious  vic- 
tims— the  same  cowardly  assault  upon  both  when  un- 
armed and  unprotected — the  same  weapon  employed — 
the  fact  that  both  the  victims  were  attended  by  their 
wives — the  method  of  attempted  escape — all  these 
furnish  a  resemblance  that  is  as  startling  as  if  drawn 
from  the  realm  of  a  horrible  fiction.    The  crimes  were 


134        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

not  more  coincident  than  the  characters  of  those  who 
figured  in  these  two  foremost  assassinations  of  modern 
history. 

William  the  Silent  was  a  noble  representative  of 
Protestant  heroism,  Protestant  faith,  and  Protestant 
liberty.     Gerard  was  the  fiendish  embodiment  of  all 
that  was  crafty,  bigoted,  and  revengeful  in  Spanish 
Popery.     Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  representative  of 
American  Republicanism  in  its  most  pure  and  primi- 
tive type.     In  Booth,  the  butcher,  was  incarnated  the 
diabolical  spirit  of  Southern  slavery.     He  is  a  speci- 
men of  the  pupils  which  the  "peculiar  institution"  has 
graduated  for  half  a  century.     Proud,  indolent,  dissi- 
pated, licentious,  a  slave  of  the  wine-cup,  and  accus- 
tomed to  the  unbridled  indulgence  of  his  passions,  he 
was  the  very  man  to  step  forth  as  at  once  the  repre- 
sentative and  the  champion  of  the  traitor-confederacy. 
What  Preston  Brooks  more  feebly  attempted  in  the 
"Freshman    class"    of    slavery,    John    Wilkes    Booth 
achieved  in  the  "Senior  year"  of  its  matured  iniquity. 
This  astounding  tragedy  at  Washington  is  but  the 
legitimate  product  of  the  same  accursed  system  that 
tore  down  the  nation's  standard  at  Sumter,  that  mas- 
sacred the  heroic  garrison  of  Fort  Pillow,  that  starved 
the  thousands  of  Union  soldiers  at  Belle  Isle,  Ander- 
sonvillej  and  on  the  Charleston  racecourse,  and  had 
been  for  a  century  maiming  and  branding  and  tortur- 
ing God's  poor  bond-children  on  innumerable  planta- 
tions.   Abraham  Lincoln,  holding  the  pen  that  pierced 
oppression  through  with  its  edict  of  emancipation,  is 
the  embodiment  of  Christian  democracy.    John  Wilkes 
Booth,  wielding  the  assassin's  weapon,  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  bowie-knife  barbarism  of  the  slaveholding 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  135 

oligarchy.  Thanks  be  to  God  that  the  days  of  that 
oligarchy  are  numbered ! 

But  let  us  turn  away  from  the  harrowing  crime  to 
its  illustrious  victim  himself.  Let  us,  as  a  bereaved 
household,  sit  down  and  talk  together  in  the  soft,  low 
accents  of  affection  about  the  great,  the  good,  the 
honest,  the  patient,  the  gentle-hearted,  the  beloved  head 
of  our  national  family  whom  God  has  taken  to  himself. 
We  are  too  near  his  coflBn  to  criticize  him ;  our  hearts 
are  yonder  in  that  coffin  with  him.  God  knows  that 
when  the  tidings  of  his  murder  first  smote  me  through 
on  that  steamer's  deck,  I  could  hardly  have  felt  a 
keener  agony  if  I  had  heard  that  my  wife  or  child  were 
gone.  So  you  felt;  so  millions  feel;  such  will  be  the 
pang  that  will  attend  this  tragedy  in  its  circuit  around 
the  globe.  No  man  of  our  time  could  be  stricken  from 
his  orbit  that  would  leave  such  a  startling  void;  and 
no  man  of  any  time  was  ever  followed  to  his  burial  by 
such  myriads  of  mourners,  or  laid  in  a  grave  that  was 
so  literally  drenched  with  a  nation's  tears.  Yes!  the 
poor  ploughboy  of  a  Kentucky  homestead  has  a  funeral 
that  was  not  accorded  to  a  Napoleon  or  a  Wellington. 

In  selecting  a  passage  for  the  motto  of  this  unpre- 
meditated tribute,  I  could  find  scores  of  lines  in  God's 
word  that  would  be  approi^riate  to  the  eulogy  of  our 
martyr-president.  But  none,  perhaps,  that  could  tell 
more  briefly  his  history  than  these  simple  words — 
*^The  Lord  blessed  Abraham  in  all  things/'  In  blessing 
our  Abraham^  God  blessed  our  regenerated  country, 
and  the  whole  household  of  humanity.  Let  me  point 
you  to  some  of  the  crowning  mercies  of  the  Divine  gift 
— with  devout  gratitude  to  the  Heavenly  Giver. 

I. — And  first  God  blessed  our  President  with  a  lowly 


136        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

birth.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  thoroughly  a  man  of  the 
people.  The  common  people  of  America  saw  the  very 
best  that  was  in  themselves  when  they  looked  at  him. 
So  plebeian  a  President  we  have  never  had.  Benjamin 
Franklin  has  hitherto  been  the  type-man  of  American 
democracy.  For  remember  that  our  Washington  came 
of  gentle  blood,  and  belonged  to  the  colonial  aristocracy 
of  Virginia.  He  had  many  of  the  traits  of  an  English 
country  gentleman;  his  associates  were  such  men  as 
Lord  Fairfax  and  the  patricians  of  the  "Old 
Dominion."  But  Lincoln  was  made  of  that  homely 
stuff  that  was  wrought  into  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Daniel  Webster. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  career  that  is  photographed 
in  the  following  dozen  lines : — Born  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky,  of  farmer  parentage  on  the  12th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1809 ;  his  boyhood  spent  in  clearing  forests  with 
the  woodman's  axe;  one  year  only  spent  in  the  rudi- 
mentary studies  of  a  district  school;  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  toiling  as  a  hired  hand  on  a  Mississippi  flat- 
boat;  then  a  clerk  in  a  country  store  of  Illinois;  next 
a  student  of  law  from  a  few  books  borrowed  in  the 
evening,  to  be  returned  on  the  next  morning ;  in  1834:  a 
member  of  the  State  Legislature;  in  1846  in  the 
National  Congress;  through  the  year  1858  measuring 
weapons  with  Douglas  in  the  most  protracted  and  bril- 
liant political  canvass  yet  waged  between  American 
debaters;  in  ISGO  chosen  triumphantly  to  the  Presi- 
dential chair;  for  four  years  the  central  figure  in  the 
most  stupendous  conflict  of  modern  times;  re-elected 
to  the  Presidency  by  a  voice  of  the  people  "like  the 
sound  of  many  waters" ;  and  from  that  lofty  eminence, 
in   the  very   moment  of  victory,   translated   through 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  137 

martyrdom  to  a  seat  in  history  beside  our  first  Wash- 
ington himself;  I  ask  you,  where  is  a  record  like  unto 
this  in  our  modern  annals?  Yet  to  the  last  and 
through  all  his  wondrous  steps  of  exaltation  he  is  the 
same  plain,  modest,  homely,  simple-hearted  Abraham 
Lincoln  who  hewed  out  rails  in  an  Illinois  forest  and 
"sorted"  farmers'  letters  in  a  rustic  postofiQce.  Since 
the  day  when  a  Corsican  lieutenant  of  artillery  pre- 
sided over  a  congress  of  conquered  kings  at  Tilsit, 
history  has  recorded  no  such  extraordinary  elevation. 
Napoleon  grew  dizzy,  but  honest  Lincoln's  head  never 
lost  its  balance.  Lifted  into  the  gaze  of  all  Christen- 
dom, his  calm  spirit  reposed  in  a  majestic  serenity ;  for 
he  felt  that  the  Hand  that  raised  him  thither  held  him 
there  with  an  infinite  grasp  until  the  Divine  purpose 
was  accomplished.  Suppose  that  when  the  coarsely 
clad  boatman  of  Illinois  was  floating  down  the  Missis- 
sippi in  his  rude  craft  some  prophetic  angel  had  told 
him  that  he  would  yet  make  that  river  the  scene  of 
prodigious  exploits  of  which  he  should  be  the  prime 
controller  and  would  one  day  sweep  from  all  that 
river's  bank  the  gigantic  system  of  human  bondage, 
would  he  not  have  smiled  at  the  bare  thought  as  the 
dream  of  an  enchanter?  Yet  the  dream  was  fulfilled. 
To  Joseph's  sheaf  all  the  other  sheaves  made  obeisance. 
I  count  it  as  an  especial  mercy  that,  through  all  his 
career,  God  blessed  our  Abraham  with  true  humility', 
and  kept  him  as  free  from  selfish  ambitions  as  the 
lowliest  sentinel  who  ever  paced  his  solitary  rounds 
on  a  rampart. 

Secondly,  God  blessed  our  good  President  with  more 
than  an  unselfish  heart;  he  gave  him  a  clear  and 
vigorous  head  and  a  most  marvelous  sagacity.    It  has 


138       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

been  too  common  to  speak  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  merely  a 
good,  honest  man,  whom  the  "accidents"  of  politics 
made  conspicuous — a  man  who  merely  drifted  on  a 
current  of  events  that  he  was  powerless  to  control. 
Such  will  not  be  the  verdict  of  posterity.  The  next 
generation  will  acknowledge  that  the  man  who  rose 
from  a  log  cabin  to  the  Presidential  chair — who  led 
a  vast  republic  through  its  wilderness  of  perilous  con- 
fusions and  its  Red  Sea  of  horrible  carnage  with  a 
patience  that  never  gave  way,  a  faith  that  never  fal- 
tered, and  a  sagacity  that  made  never  a  serious  mis- 
take, was  a  man  who  has  no  superior  in  the  American 
annals.  I  predict  that  fifty  years  hence  the  foremost 
name  in  American  history  will  be  the  name  that  was 
signed  to  the  Edict  of  Emancipation.  Napoleon's  test 
of  ability  was  a  very  simple  one — "Who  did  all  that?" 
We  apply  this  test  to  our  departed  President,  and 
ask — who  has  achieved  more  than  Lincoln?  Who  did 
his  life-work  better  than  he?  The  backwoodsman  of 
Illinois  did  not  lay  claim  to  Hamilton's  imperial  intel- 
lect, yet  Hamilton  never  read  events  more  sagaciously. 
He  did  not  claim  John  Jay's  profound  wisdom,  yet  Jay 
never  decided  more  wisely.  He  did  not  pretend  to 
Daniel  Webster's  massive  and  magnificent  oratory ;  but 
Webster  never  put  more  truth  into  a  portable  form  for 
the  common  people.  Lincoln's  speech  in  the  Cooper 
Institute  of  New  York  in  1859  was  a  masterpiece  of 
clear  trenchant  argumentation.  With  him  common 
sense  did  the  work  of  genius.  He  clove  at  once  to  the 
root  of  the  matter.  Some  of  his  homely  sayings  will 
live  alongside  of  Benjamin  Franklin's.  His  pleasant 
jokes  had  more  meaning  in  them  than  many  another 
man's  pompous  harangues. 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  139 

For  example,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  to  a  Kentucky 
friend  these  simple  words,  "if  slavery  is  not  wrong 
then  nothing  is  wrong,"  he  answered  in  one  sentence 
all  the  detestable  logic  of  Thornwell  and  Calhoun. 
When  he  said  in  1858,  "it  is  impossible  for  this  Union 
to  exist,  one  half  slave  and  the  other  half  free,"  he 
announced  a  truth  which  previous  statesmen  had  either 
failed  to  perceive  or  else  failed  to  utter.  His  brief 
address  on  the  battleground  of  Gettysburg  is  sublime 
in  its  pathos.  His  last  memorable  "Inaugural"  will 
take  its  place  beside  the  Farewell  Address  of  Wash- 
ington. The  carping  London  Times  did  not  dare  to 
sneer  at  that.  When  I  read  it  on  the  street  in  a  daily 
journal,  I  said  to  myself,  "God  be  praised  for  a  Presi- 
dent who  can  utter  God's  Word  from  a  Presidential 
chair!"  There  are  few  finer  passages  in  the  English 
language  than  this  oft-quoted  sentence,  so  sonorous  in 
its  roll,  and  so  severely  true  in  its  portent.  "If  it  is 
the  will  of  God  that  this  war  continue  until  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  by  the  lash  shall  be  repaid  by 
another  drawn  by  the  sword,  then,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  that  the 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  alto- 
gether." 

Scoffers  at  home  and  secessionists  abroad  have  been 
wont  to  flout  at  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  "jester,"  a  "clown" 
and  a  "buffoon."  As  well  denounce  Washington  as  a 
cynic  because  he  seldom  laughed.  Lincoln's  humor 
was  as  natural  to  him  as  breathing.  It  was  a  happy 
gift.  It  kept  his  temper  sweet  and  lubricated  his  mind 
that  might  otherwise  have  been  worn  into  sullenness  or 


140        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

into  despondency  by  the  tremendous  friction  of  care 
and  overwhelming  anxieties.  None  of  his  jokes  were 
ill-timed  or  malevolent.  Some  of  them  were  exceed- 
ingly adroit.  For  instance,  when  an  inquisitive  visitor 
questioned  him  too  closely  as  to  the  destination  of 
the  Burnside  expedition,  the  President  inquired  with 
mock  gravity,  "my  friend,  can  you  keep  a  secret?" 
"Yes,  sir,"  he  eagerly  replied.  "Then,"  said  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, "I  will  venture  to  inform  you  that  the  expedition 
has  gone  to  sea." 

The  shrewd  sense  that  made  this  ready  answer  was 
the  same  shrewd  sense  that  dictated  every  Presidential 
message,  that  aimed  the  emancipation-edict  at  slavery's 
guilty  head,  and  guided  his  every  footstep  along  the 
dark  dangerous  way  that  duty  commanded  him  to 
tread.  I  do  not  claim  for  our  beloved  President  a 
profoundly  philosophical  mind.  I  do  not  claim  for  him 
brilliant  genius.  But  I  do  claim  that  when  the  Al- 
mighty made  Abraham  Lincoln  for  this  great  national 
crisis,  he  did  not  make  a  mistake. 

III.  Let  us  look  now  a  moment  at  another  blessing 
which  God  gave  to  our  beloved  and  martyred  ruler. 
Beneath  that  manly  head  he  gave  him  a  woman's 
heart.  Did  you  ever  hear  that  our  father  Abraham 
ever  spoke  a  harsh  word  to  one  of  his  children?  Did 
you  ever  see  his  now  dead  hands  stained  with  cruelty? 
With  almost  unlimited  power  entrusted  to  him,  did 
he  ever  play  "the  tyrant"?  He  loved  everybody  and 
wanted  everybody  to  love  him.  Nobody  was  afraid  of 
him — except  rogues  and  traitors,  and  he  was  too  lenient 
even  toward  them.  The  humblest  "blue-jacket"  that 
entered  the  White  House  was  sure  of  a  hearty  grasp 
of  that  open  honest  hand,  and  if  the  soldier's  child 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  141 

came  along,  the  tall  ungainly  form  would  lift  it  up  for 
a  kiss.  He  never  could  stand  a  woman's  tears;  they 
were  almost  certain  to  melt  down  a  death  sentence 
into  a  pardon.  His  last  act  was  one  of  clemency  to  a 
notorious  traitor;  if  he  had  lived,  he  was  in  more 
danger  of  surrendering  to  rebel  prayers  than  he  ever 
was  of  surrendering  to  rebel  swords. 

All  the  common  people  had  felt  of  Lincoln's  heart, 
and  they  loved  him.  His  political  foes  were  his  per- 
sonal friends :  "he  is  a  kind  honest  man  after  all"  was 
the  confession  that  followed  even  the  bitterest  assault 
upon  his  public  policy.  The  popular  names  given  to 
great  men  are  a  clue  to  the  popular  estimate  of  their 
characters.  We  once  had  a  resolute  piece  of  stuff  in 
the  Presidential  chair  whom  the  people  styled  "Old 
Hickory."  We  had  an  "Old  Tippecanoe" — so  named 
from  his  principal  battle;  we  called  another  gallant 
veteran  "Rough  and  Ready."  But  this  plain  homespun 
kind-voiced  President  was  so  near  to  every  one  of  us — 
so  like  our  own  relative  that  we  were  wont  to  call 
him  "Uncle  Abe"  and  "Father  Abraham."  There  was 
no  disrespect  in  this;  but  rather  a  respect  so  deep 
and  honest  that  it  could  afford  to  be  familiar. 

Did  this  abounding  kindness  of  heart  ever  warp  his 
sense  of  right,  and  lead  him  to  compromise  his  princi- 
ples? This  was  his  danger,  but  I  think  that  in  the 
main  he  avoided  it.  Not  for  a  moment  did  he  yield  to 
the  false  counsels  of  the  treacherous,  the  bribes  of  the 
corrupt,  or  the  weak  fears  of  the  desponding. 
Abraham  Lincoln's  religion,  as  far  as  the  world  saw  it — 
lay  in  two  cardinal  principles — a  rigid  sense  of  right — 
and  an  unfaltering  faith  in  the  Providence  of  God. 
He  was  a  child  of  Providence.    "If  I  did  not  seek  help 


142        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

from  God  every  morning  I  could  not  stand  up  under 
the  load  laid  upon  me,"  was  the  substance  of  a  remark 
made  to  an  intimate  friend  during  a  gloomy  period 
of  the  war.  What  was  the  degree  of  our  President's 
heart-faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  known  only  to  the  Omnis- 
cient. He  worshiped  in  God's  sanctuary;  he  once 
taught  in  the  Sabbath  school;  he  was  rigidly  moral; 
he  practiced  abstinence  from  the  wine  cup  as  well  as 
preached  it;  he  set  a  noble  example  of  industry,  con- 
tinence, fortitude  and  integrity.  He  never  made  any 
public  confession  of  his  faith  in  the  Redeemer.  This 
I  regret  from  my  inmost  heart.  Would  to  God  that 
the  lofty  philanthropy  which  made  him  our  Wilher- 
force,  had  also  been  coupled  with  Wilberforce's  devout, 
tender  and  fervid  piety !  Praises  be  rendered  too  unto 
God  for  the  faith  in  an  overruling  Providence  which 
dwelt  in  Lincoln's  great  kindly  heart;  and  for  the 
beautiful  law  of  right  which  guided  his  glorious  career ! 
Never  had  a  public  man  a  harder  path  to  tread;  but 
he  never  lost  his  way — for  he  simply  and  steadily 
kept  to  the  straight  road.  After  issuing  the  procla- 
mation of  freedom  he  said  to  a  friend,  "I  did  not  think 
the  people  had  been  educated  up  to  it;  but  I  thought 
it  was  right  to  issue  it,  and  so  I  did  it." 

And  now  that  great,  generous  child-like  heart  has 
ceased  to  throb!  Those  deep,  melancholy  eyes — deep 
wells  of  sorrow  as  they  always  looked  to  me — are 
dimmed  forever.  Those  gaunt  ungainly  limbs  with 
which  he  strode  along  his  patient  way  under  the 
burthen,  are  laid  to  rest.  The  hand  that  broke  four 
million  of  fetters  is  lifeless  clay !  Lincoln  in  his  cofl&n 
has  put  a  world  in  tears.  Never  was  a  man  so 
mourned;    never   before   did    all    Christendom    stand 


THEODOEE  L.  CUYLER  143 

mourners  around  one  single  bier.  That  pistol  shot  at 
Washington  echoes  round  the  world  in  the  universal 
wail  of  humanity.  God  pity  our  noble  friends  abroad 
when  they  hear  the  tidings!  Kossuth  will  weep  as  he 
wept  for  the  lost  crown  of  Maria  Theresa.  John 
Bright's  heart  will  bleed  as  it  bled  but  yesterday  over 
the  grave  of  Cobden.  Garibaldi  will  clasp  that  little 
grandson  to  his  bosom  with  a  tenderer  love,  that  the 
child  bears  the  name  of  "Abraham  Lincoln."  Our 
missionaries  in  Syria  and  China  and  the  Pacific  Isles 
will  drop  warm  tears  on  the  pages  of  those  Bibles  that 
they  are  rendering  into  heathen  tongues.  Here  at 
home  I  see  the  sorrow  in  every  eye;  the  air  is  heavy 
with  the  grief;  "there  is  not  a  house  in  which  there 
is  not  ONE  dead." 

Intense  as  is  our  grief,  who  shall  fathom  the  sorrow 
of  those  to  whom  he  brought  the  boon  of  freedom, 
when  they  shall  learn  of  the  death  of  their  liberator? 
What  wails  shall  mingle  with  the  voices  of  the  sea 
along  Carolina's  shore !  Miriam's  timbrel  in  a  moment 
drowned  in  Rachel's  cry  of  anguish ! 

Last  Saturday  morning  I  addressed  one  thousand 
freedmen's  children  in  the  doomed  city  of  Charleston. 
When  I  said  to  them,  "May  I  invite  for  you  your  father 
Lincoln  to  come  to  Charleston  and  see  the  little  folks 
he  has  made  free?"  a  thousand  black  hands  flew  up 
with  a  shout.  Alas!  at  that  moment  a  silent  corpse 
lay  in  the  East  Room  at  Washington.  On  reaching 
Fortress  Monroe — under  the  first  stunning  blow  of  the 
awful  tidings,  I  went  aside  to  a  group  of  poor  negro 
women  who  were  gathered  about  a  huckster's  table, 
which  was  hung  with  a  few  coarse  strips  of  black 
muslin.    "Well,  friends,  the  good  man  is  gone."    "Yes, 


144        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

sah,"  spake  out  a  gray-haired  Aunt  Chloe — "yes,  sah ! 
Linkum's  dead!  They  killed  our  best  friend.  But 
God  be  libin'  yet.  Dey  can't  kill  him.  I'se  sure  of 
dat!"  How  instinctively  the  childish  faith  of  those 
long-suffering  hearts  reached  up  to  the  Almighty  arm ! 
In  that  poor  freedwoman's  broken  ejaculation,  "Linkum 
dead — but  God  still  libin',''  I  find  the  only  solace  for 
your  smitten  heart  and  mine. 

Did  Lincoln  die  too  soon?  For  us  aud  for  the  world 
he  did ;  but  not  for  himself.  It  is  all  sadly  right.  God's 
will  be  done!  The  time  had  come  when,  like  Samson, 
our  beloved  leader  could  slay  more  by  his  death  than 
in  his  life.  He  has  slain  the  accursed  spirit  of  slavery 
yet  lurking  in  the  North.  He  has  slain  the  last  vestige 
of  sympathy  with  the  discomfited  rebellion  in  every 
candid  foreign  mind.  That  pistol's  flash  has  revealed 
the  slave-drivers'  conspiracy  to  the  world — "Not  only 
doomed,  but  damned." 

Our  father  died  at  the  right  time;  for  his  mighty 
work  was  done.  He  lived  to  see  the  rebellion  in  its  last 
agonies;  he  lived  to  enter  Richmond  amid  the  accla- 
mations of  the  liberated  slave,  and  to  sit  down  in  the 
arch-traitor's  deserted  seat;  he  lived  until  Sumter's 
flag  rose  again  like  a  star  of  Bethlehem  in  the  southern 
sky,  and  then,  with  the  martyr's  crown  upon  his  brow, 
and  with  four  million  broken  fetters  in  his  hand,  he 
went  up  to  meet  his  God.  In  a  moment  his  life 
crystallizes  into  the  pure  white  fame  that  belongs  only 
to  the  martyr  for  truth  and  liberty !  Terrible  as  seems 
the  method  of  his  death  to  us  to-day,  it  was  after  all 
the  most  fitting  and  glorious.  He  fell  by  the  hand  of 
the  same  iniquity  that  slew  Lyon  and  Shaw,  and  Sedg- 
wick and  Rice,  and  Wadsworth  and  McPherson.     In 


THEODORE  L.  CUYLER  U5 

God's  sight  Lincoln  was  no  more  precious  than  the 
humblest  drummer  boy  who  has  bled  away  his  young 
life  on  the  sod  of  Gettysburg  or  Chattanooga.  He  had 
called  on  two  hundred  thousand  heroes  to  lay  down 
their  lives  for  their  country ;  and  now  he  too  has  gone 
to  make  his  grave  beside  them. 

So  sleep  the  brave  who  sink  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest. 

When  that  grave  that  now  opens  for  its  illustrious 
victim  on  yonder  western  prairie  shall  finally  yield  up 
its  dead,  glorious  will  be  his  resurrection!  Methinks 
that  I  behold  the  spirit  of  the  great  Liberator  in  that 
judgment  scene  before  the  assembled  hosts  of  heaven. 
Around  him  are  the  tens  of  thousands  from  whom  he 
struck  the  oppressor's  chain.  Methinks  I  hear  their 
grateful  voices  exclaim,  "we  were  an  hungered,  and 
thou  gavest  us  the  bread  of  truth ;  we  were  thirsty  for 
liberty,  and  thou  gavest  us  drink;  we  were  strangers, 
and  thou  didst  take  us  in;  we  were  sick  with  two 
centuries  of  sorrow,  and  thou  didst  visit  us;  we  were 
in  the  prisonhouse  of  bondage  and  thou  camest  unto 
us."  And  the  King  shall  say  unto  him,  "inasmuch  as 
thou  hast  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  thou  hast  done  it  unto  me.  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant,  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


IX 

KEV.  ELBERT  S.  PORTER,  D.D. 

"What  alleth  the  people  that  they  weep?"— 1  Sak.  11.  5, 

A  GREAT  indignity  had  been  offered  Israel  by  Nahash, 
the  cruel  Ammonite.  When  the  people  heard  of  it 
they  wept,  and  Saul,  beholding  the  public  sorrow,  ex- 
claimed: "What  aileth  the  people  that  they  weep?" 
When  told  the  cause  thereof  the  Spirit  of  God  came 
upon  Saul,  and  his  anger  was  kindled  greatly. 

High  crimes  always  awaken  corresponding  indigna- 
tion. For  there  is  that  in  human  nature  which  arises 
into  flame  when  touched  by  the  presence  of  a  flagrant 
wrong.  The  instinct  of  justice  which  has  been  im- 
planted in  the  human  soul  by  the  Author  of  all  justice, 
is  quick  in  its  spontaneous  protest  against  every  form 
of  palpable  outrage.  A  woe  is  denounced  against  them 
that  call  good  evil,  or  evil  good,  for  when  men  lose 
ability  or  willingness  to  distinguish  between  right  and 
wrong,  to  approve  the  one  and  condemn  the  other, 
then  society  is  fatally  wounded  and  vice  becomes  the 
equal  of  virtue ;  and  it  is  the  Spirit  of  a  just  God  which 
kindles  a  holy  indignation  in  the  human  mind  against 
crimes,  whether  committed  against  nations,  communi- 
ties, classes,  or  individuals.  It  may  be  taken  for  a 
maxim  that  a  righteous  abhorrence  of  malignant  and 
criminal  passion  is  an  essential  element  of  popular 

146 


ELBERT  S.  PORTER  147 

virtue.  Where  this  is  wanting,  a  nation  has  parted 
from  all  integrity  of  feeling.  It  has  fallen  into  the 
depths  of  moral  putridity,  and  rots  in  the  infectious 
atmosphere  generated  by  abominable  atheism.  So  long 
as  men  retain  God  in  their  thoughts  and  reverence 
him  as  the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  they  must  cry  out 
against  common  offenses  and  extraordinary  crimes. 
They  forfeit  their  noblest  instincts  when  they  come 
short  of  this  duty. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  assassination  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States  should  awaken 
feelings  of  horror,  and  evoke  the  indignation  of  every 
right-minded  man.  That  it  has  done  this,  admits  of 
no  question.  Never,  since  its  beginning,  until  yester- 
day, has  this  nation  felt,  so  profoundly  as  it  does  now, 
the  anguish  of  a  sacred  indignation,  because  of  a  mon- 
strous, and,  in  our  country,  hitherto  unknown  crime. 
This  indignation  is  none  the  less  because  it  is,  for  a 
moment,  stifled  by  tears  and  sobs  of  genuine  sorrow. 
Need  we  ask,  "Why  do  the  people  weep"? 

Whatever  be  the  reason,  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
there  has  been  no  attempt  to  feign  or  affect  sorrow. 
It  has  been  as  spontaneous  as  light,  and  as  universal 
too.  There  was  no  waiting  on  yesterday  for  proclama- 
tions, or  resolutions,  or  any  of  the  customary  methods 
of  forming  and  shaping  opinions.  Men  were  speech- 
less with  grief,  and  pallid  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
calamity.  Business  there  could  be  none,  for  the  people 
had  no  heart  to  engage  in  traffic.  They  looked  into 
each  other's  faces  and  conversed  only  through  their 
falling  tears.  Funeral  woe  hung  over  our  cities.  An 
appalling  blow  had  paralyzed  the  popular  heart,  and 
it  communed  in  bitterness  with  its  own  woe,  waiting  to 


148        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

be  comforted.  Undoubtedly  the  manner  of  the  Presi- 
dent's death  gave  particular  character  and  shape  to 
the  all-pervasive  grief,  and  yet  we  may  ask  whether, 
if  he  had  been  allowed  to  end  his  useful  life  upon  a 
quiet  bed  in  this  period  of  our  national  conflict,  there 
would  not  have  been  an  unusual  lamentation  over  his 
death. 

He  is  done  with  earth.  His  record  is  made;  his  deeds 
have  passed  into  history,  and  he  will  be  judged  like 
other  men  who  have  occupied  conspicuous  public  posi- 
tions. It  is  too  soon  yet  to  undertake  to  estimate  his 
services  or  to  measure  his  influence.  This  generation 
must  first  pass  away  before  a  just  and  impartial  criti- 
cism shall  assign  him  his  true  place  among  the  illus- 
trious benefactors  of  mankind. 

When  on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Abraham  Lincoln 
became  President  of  these  United  States,  he  ceased  to 
be  the  chieftain  of  a  political  party.  Perils,  great,  vast, 
and  immediate,  were  around  him.  He  could  no  longer 
give  up  to  party  what  he  owed  to  the  whole  country. 
From  that  moment  it  became  his  supreme  care  to  do 
what  seemed  right  and  necessary  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Union  and  the  maintenance  of  its  just  govern- 
mental authority.  In  the  excitement  and  confusion  of 
the  times  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  any  fallible  man 
to  adopt  measures  exactly  suited  to  please  the  preju- 
dices, the  passions,  and  the  interests  of  all.  During 
our  most  tranquil  periods  the  high  office  of  President 
has  been  compassed  with  immense  difficulties.  If  its 
dignity  is  great  its  responsibilities  are  far  greater.  In 
a  republic  like  this,  where  opinions  rave  and  rage  like 
tempests  over  the  deep,  our  chief  magistrates,  even  in 
the  more  quiet  times  of  the  republic,  have  never  found 


ELBERT  S.  PORTER  149 

themselves  free  from  grave  embarrassments,  or  threat- 
ening dangers.  But  the  difficulties  of  administration 
experienced  by  his  predecessors  were  as  nothing 
compared  with  those  which  beset  Mr.  Lincoln.  Seces- 
sion, long  plotted,  thoroughly  organized  and  defiant, 
had  already  brought  the  national  government  to  the 
verge  of  ruin.  Men  were  everywhere  asking  whereunto 
will  all  this  infernal  mischief  come?  The  popular  mind 
was  without  definite  convictions  concerning  what  ought 
to  be  done.  The  leaders  of  public  opinion,  following 
their  themes,  their  abstractions,  and  their  low  ambi- 
tions, held  few  doctrines  in  common.  The  President 
was  then,  perforce,  obliged  to  take  counsel  only  from 
his  oath  of  office,  and  to  go  forward,  trusting  in  God 
and  the  rectitude  of  the  cause  he  had  been  elected  to 
defend. 

Looking  back  over  the  four  years  of  his  official  his- 
tory, it  is  possible  to  detect  some  mistakes;  but  these 
mistakes  will  be  very  differently  defined  and  described 
by  opposite  schools  of  opinion.  The  criticisms  to 
which  his  administration  of  affairs  has  been  subjected 
by  avowed  political  dissenters,  have  not,  perhaps,  in 
the  main,  been  any  more  ungenerous  or  embarrassing 
than  those  emanating  from  adverse  faction,  in  the 
party  claiming  to  be  his  particular  supporters.  I 
allude  to  this  only  to  remind  you  of  the  immense  diffi- 
culties which  from  the  first  have  ever  beset  his  public 
life.  Yet  he  seemed  to  be  oblivious  of  parties  and  of 
party  factions  alike.  He  inquired  for  the  men  who 
were  willing  to  stand  by  their  country,  and  them  he 
called  into  civil  and  into  military  service.  He  had  one 
thing  to  do — to  save  the  country — to  preserve  the 
Union — and  who  will  or  can  doubt  that  he  gave  himself 


150       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

wholly  and  entirely  to  that  work?  If  he  had  been  able 
to  foresee  all  things,  he  might  have  avoided  some 
alleged  errors.  Had  he  been  possessed  of  divine  intel- 
ligence, he  would  have  timed  and  adjusted  measures 
with  a  skill  forbidding  criticism.  Yet  after  all  allow- 
ance is  made  for  any  real  or  imaginary  imperfection 
of  official  judgment,  it  must  still  be  confessed  that  the 
President  who,  under  God,  conducted  this  nation 
through  a  great  war  with  a  powerful  foe,  and  within 
sight  of  returning  peace,  will  ever  be  honored  and  held 
worthy  of  honor  by  those  who  consider  the  magnitude 
of  his  task  and  the  magnitude  of  the  results  it  has 
secured. 

I  think  all  candid  men,  of  whatever  shade  of  opinion, 
will  concur  with  me  in  this  estimate  of  the  official 
career  of  our  lamented  President.  That  he  did,  or 
tried  to  do,  whatever  seemed  to  him  right  and  ex- 
pedient for  the  salvation  of  our  government,  will  be 
readily  admitted  even  by  those  who  were  free  to  cen- 
sure particular  acts.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  fanatic, 
nor  a  theorist.  He  had  no  hobbies.  His  mind  was 
broad,  comprehensive,  and  practical.  His  motto 
seemed  to  be  that  of  Edmund  Burke,  "A  true  states- 
man must  deal  with  practical  affairs  in  a  practical 
way."  This  furnishes  a  key  to  his  policy.  In  the 
summer  of  1862,  I  passed  an  hour  with  the  President 
in  his  summer  retreat  at  the  Old  Soldiers'  Home. 
There  were  but  three  others  present,  and  the  conver- 
sation was  free  and  unrestrained.  He  spoke  of  slavery 
as  a  thing  which  had  grown  up  with  the  nation  and 
grown  into  it — said  that  one  section  was  no  more 
responsible  than  another  for  its  original  existence  here, 
and  that  the  whole  nation  having  suffered  from  it, 


ELBERT  S.  PORTER  151 

ought  to  share  in  efforts  for  its  gradual  removal.  His 
mind  at  the  time  was  impressed  with  the  necessity  of 
adopting  a  scheme  of  gradual  and  compensated  eman- 
cipation. That  scheme,  however,  found  no  favor  among 
the  insurgents,  and  was  violently  condemned  by  cer- 
tain organs  of  opinion  at  the  North.  When,  however, 
foreign  intervention  became  imminent,  the  President 
issued  as  a  war  measure  the  proclamation  of  freedom 
to  the  slaves.  It  was  a  measure  concerning  which  men 
have  differed — but  that  it  was  believed  by  the  Presi- 
dent to  be  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union, 
I  have  no  manner  of  doubt,  and  since  the  Southern 
people  have  themselves  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
slavery  as  an  institution  is  dead,  and  have  by  their 
own  acts  helped  it  to  its  end,  there  is  no  longer  reason 
at  this  day  to  revive  disputes,  which  have  ceased  to 
possess  any  practical  utility.  But  whatever  men  may 
choose  to  think  or  say  respecting  the  official  acts  or 
intellectual  characteristics  of  our  late  President,  one 
thing  must  be  held  as  true  by  all — and  that  is,  that 
the  popular  confidence  in  his  moral  integrity  has  well- 
nigh  approached  sublimity.  That  confidence  has  been 
as  a  wall  of  defense  round  about  us.  I  shall  not  enter 
into  particulars  illustrative  of  this.  You  must  all 
remember  that  the  war  has  produced  through  all  its 
vicissitudes  a  tremendous  strain  upon  popular  feeling 
of  adverse  kinds.  There  have  been  ambitious  men  not 
a  few,  planning  and  plotting  for  their  own  advance- 
ment, and  they  have  built  up  little  parties  around  them, 
whose  interest  could  be  subserved  by  destroying  con- 
fidence in  Mr.  Lincoln.  But  while  they  had  always 
some  success,  after  all,  the  people  would  fall  back 
upon  that  plain,  unpretending,  everyday  sort  of  a  man, 


152        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

who  maintained  his  faith  in  God  unimpaired,  and 
trusted  that  the  future  would  reverse  all  the  misjudg- 
ments  of  the  present.  The  lesson  of  such  a  political 
example  of  unimpeachable  integrity  is  worth  a  great 
deal  to  this  nation. 

Several  of  our  Presidents  and  statesmen  have  risen 
from  obscure  life.  They  were  not  born  to  the  silver 
spoon  and  silken  bed  of  luxury.  Jackson,  the  son  of  a 
poor  Irish  widow;  Henry  Clay,  a  poor  white  of  the 
South ;  Van  Buren,  a  lad  of  humble  means,  have  filled 
important  pages  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  born  in  Kentucky,  and  passed  all  his 
early,  and  some  of  his  maturer  years  in  a  hard  conflict 
with  poverty.  This,  by  some,  has  been  used  to  stigma- 
tize and  defame  him.  But  right-thinking  men  will  find 
in  it  occasion  to  bestow  upon  him  double  honor.  It 
is  not  difficult  for  the  favored  few  to  gain  a  full  share 
of  worldly  success.  Born  to  wealth,  to  social  position 
— surrounded  by  friends,  ever  ready  to  bestow  or 
secure  patronage — they  have  the  current  with  them. 
They  do  but  float  down  its  surface  to  the  harbor  they 
desire.  But  the  many  are  poor,  have  few  friends  to 
help  them,  and  they  must  not  only  struggle  against 
wind  and  tide,  but  at  the  same  time  endure  the  scornful 
jeers  and  malevolent  opposition  of  the  more  favored 
mortals.  No  poor  boy  is  allowed  to  make  his  way 
unless  he  has  heart,  and  courage,  and  purpose  enough 
to  disregard  the  contempt  of  supercilious  wealth,  the 
secret  malignity  of  interested  rivals,  together  with  all 
the  other  common  or  uncommon  obstacles  in  the  road 
to  success.  Our  free  institutions  embody  the  principles 
of  a  Christian  democracy.  The  Bible  favors  no  class 
distinctions.     It  teaches  that  all  are  required  to  use 


ELBEKT  S.  PORTER  153 

what  talents  they  possess,  and  that  each  shall  be  com- 
pensated according  to  his  fidelity  in  their  use.  And 
that  is  what  our  political  system  also  says.  In  the 
world  it  is  not  so.  The  poor  remain  poor — the  ignorant 
remain  ignorant,  and  the  rich  heap  up  riches.  This 
at  least  is  the  rule  where  aristocracy  bears  sway.  It 
is,  thank  God,  not  so  here.  Our  churches,  our  schools, 
our  newspapers,  our  whole  life,  inculcate  the  doctrine 
of  Christ,  respecting  the  right  of  each  man  to  rise  in 
intelligence,  virtue,  dignity,  and  influence.  Against 
this  life,  secession  lifted  its  murderous  hand  in  the 
beginning,  and  to  add  to  the  "sum  of  all  villainies," 
has  assassinated  the  President.  I  do  not  wish  to  em- 
ploy the  language  of  passion.  But  I  hate,  with  a  per- 
fect hatred,  this  infernal  spirit  of  rebellion  which  has 
plunged  our  land  into  mourning,  filled  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  graves  with  the  bodies  of  martyrs  slain 
for  their  loyalty  to  principles  taught  us  by  the  Son  of 
God.  Can  there  be  a  doubt  respecting  this  issue?  The 
American  people  are  to  be  executors  of  the  unrecorded 
will  and  testament  of  their  generous,  humane  and 
patriotic  President.  Let  them  be  true  to  their  trust. 
Do  any  undervalue  the  inestimable  privileges  of  our 
American  institutions,  let  them  look  abroad  and  see 
how  "privilege"  oppresses  the  many.  The  few  are 
masters  of  the  people.  Here  the  many  have  advantages 
which  assure  them  opportunity  of  being  all  they  have 
capacity  to  become.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  repre- 
sentative of  popular  rights,  manhood,  and  liberty.  The 
people  weep  because  they  loved  him  in  character  as  a 
President,  and  as  a  man.  The  assassin  who  struck 
him,  assailed  every  loyal  citizen  through  him — and 
dealt  a  murderous  blow  upon  the  nation  in  murdering 


154        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

its  head.  We  have  our  duties.  We  must  stand  by  the 
successor  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Andrew  Johnson  is  worthy 
of  our  support.  He  is  now  our  Chief  Magistrate — and 
as  he  wears  the  mantle  of  his  immediate  predecessor, 
so  let  us  give  him  the  support  of  our  prayers  and  our 
loyal  devotion  to  the  cause  he  serves.  Henceforth  the 
namCj  fame,  and  virtues  of  each  are  in  the  keeping  of 
so  much  of  the  world  as  delight  to  honor  rare  ability, 
unimpeachable  integrity,  and  fervent  devotion  to  the 
rights  of  all  mankind.  Washington  was  indeed  the 
father  of  his  country,  and  some  future  Bancroft  shall 
record  on  the  page  of  history  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  the  political  savior  of  what  Washington  and  his 
compatriots  had  founded.  We  weep,  but  we  shall  dry 
our  tears  in  the  sunlight  of  Hope.  The  President  is 
no  more — but  the  Republic  lives.    Let  it  be  perpetual. 


EEV.  S.  D.  BURCHARD,  D.D. 
"And  by  It  he  being  dead  yet  speaketh." — Heb.  11.  4. 

The  chapter  from  which  our  text  is  taken  contains 
a  record  of  the  achievements  of  faith  in  the  days  of 
the  patriarchs — a  record  designed  to  stimulate  us  in 
these  far-off  ages  of  the  Christian  Church. 

"By  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent 
sacrifice  than  Cain,  by  which  he  obtained  witness  that 
he  was  righteous,  God  testifying  of  his  gifts;  and  by 
it  he  being  dead  yet  speaketh." 

Abel,  the  accepted  worshiper  and  martyred  brother, 
still  lives  in  his  faith  and  speaks  in  his  example,  de- 
claring that  sin  can  be  pardoned  only  through  the 
propitiation  of  Christ,  of  which  his  offering  was  the 
appropriate  and  significant  type.  Though  this  is  the 
personal  and  primary  reference  of  this  brief  sentence, 
it  may  be  regarded  as  containing  a  general  principle — 
a  lesson  to  the  living,  as  well  as  a  touching  memorial 
of  the  dead. 

The  world  is  full  of  voices — the  voices  of  those  that 
have  lived,  but  are  gone. 

Their  utterances  did  not  cease  when  their  voice  was 
no  longer  heard. 

They  have  a  continuous  oratory,  awakening  emo- 
tions and  memories  in  the  nursery,  around  the  family 

155 


156        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

hearthstone,  and  in  the  places  of  public  concourse. 
Does  not  the  voice  of  the  little  child  still  linger  in 
your  dwelling,  though  its  form  is  no  longer  visible? 
Do  not  its  familiar  toys,  its  unused  dress,  its  well- 
remembered  smile,  its  last  kiss  speak  in  a  tone  of 
pathos  such  as  no  living  voice  could  articulate? 

Our  fathers  and  mothers  may  be  gone.  Long  years 
may  have  passed  since  the  tie  of  affection  was  sundered, 
and  we  wept  disconsolate  orphans  over  their  graves, 
but  the  father  speaks  still  in  his  manly  words  and 
deeds,  and  the  mother  in  the  closet  of  her  devotions. 

The  great — the  good — the  loving  live;  they  are  in- 
visible, yet  life  is  filled  with  their  presence.  They  are 
with  us  in  the  sacredness  and  seclusion  of  home — in  the 
paths  of  society,  and  in  the  crowded  assemblies  of 
men.  They  speak  to  us  from  the  lonely  wayside — 
from  the  council  halls  of  the  nation,  and  from  the 
sanctuaries  that  echo  to  the  voice  of  prayer. 

Go  where  we  will  and  the  dead  are  with  us.  Their 
well-remembered  tones  mingle  with  the  voices  of  nature 
— with  the  sound  of  the  autumn  leaf — with  the  jubilee 
shout  of  the  spring  time. 

Every  man  who  departs  leaves  a  voice  and  an  in- 
fluence behind  him. 

The  graves  of  the  peasant  and  of  the  prince  are  alike 
vocal.  The  sepulchral  vault  in  which  the  remains  of 
our  beloved  President  were  laid  the  other  day,  as  well 
as  the  cold,  wet,  opening  earth  in  which  the  humble 
laborer  was  buried,  utters  a  silent  yet  all-subduing 
oratory.  From  every  one  of  the  dead  a  voice  is  heard 
in  the  living  circles  of  men,  which  the  knell  of  their 
departure  does  not  drown,  which  the  earth  and  the 
green  sod  do  not  muffle,  which  neither  deafness  nor 


S.  D.  BUKCHARD  157 

distance,  nor  anything  that  man  may  devise,  can  pos- 
sibly extinguish.  The  cemetery  often  speaks  more 
thrilling  accents  than  the  senate  house,  and  the  cham- 
ber of  the  dead  is  often  more  eloquent  than  the  council 
hall  of  the  living.  You  perceive  the  sentiment  then, 
which  we  gather  from  the  textj  that  the  influence  of  a 
man  in  his  deeds  and  words  while  living  survive  him, 
so  that  he  being  dead  yet  speaketh,  and  his  words  and 
influence  may  abide  forever  through  the  ages. 

Let  this  thought  engage  our  meditations  and  give  us 
fresh  incentives  to  virtue  and  usefulness.  It  is  a 
thought  which  may  well  mingle  in  the  solemnities  of 
this  hour. 

The  nation  weeps  over  the  tragic  end  of  its  chief 
magistrate,  but  his  kindly  words  and  well-remembered 
deeds  are  left  us  as  an  imperishable  legacy.  They  are 
enshrined  in  our  hearts,  and  will  live  in  our  lives,  and 
will  help  to  form  the  nation's  life  and  character. 

Does  not  the  principle  thus  stated  find  illustration 
in  our  daily  life  and  experience?  Do  not  the  sayings 
and  doings  of  your  departed  friends  often  arrest  you 
in  the  stir  of  business  or  pleasure,  imparting  a  new 
impulse  either  for  good  or  evil?  Do  not  their  words 
often  echo  in  the  chambers  of  memory,  stirring  the 
heart  to  its  deepest  depths?  Do  not  their  features 
and  forms  start  into  bright  contrast  with  the  dark- 
ness of  actual  absence,  and  make  the  present  radiant 
with  the  light  of  early  recollections?  Do  not  the 
sounds  of  the  one  and  the  sight  of  the  other  daguerreo- 
type themselves  upon  our  moral  life? 

Can  we  isolate  and  divest  ourselves  utterly  from  the 
impressions  made  upon  us  by  those  who  have  ceased  to 
move  in  the  throng  of  living  men? 


158        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

We  are  shaped  and  moulded  in  our  characters,  not 
less  by  the  memories  and  forces  of  the  past,  than  by  the 
surroundings  of  the  present.  We  are  checked  and 
stimulated  by  the  example  and  teaching  of  those  who 
have  rested  from  their  labors,  and  which  now  come  to 
us  like  a  prophet's  voice  from  out  the  dark  and  dream- 
like past. 

A  young  man,  for  instance,  who  has  been  trained 
under  the  best  maternal  influence,  becomes  restless 
and  discontented,  and  leaves  the  home  of  his  childhood 
and  the  restraints  of  former  years,  and  yields  himself 
a  victim  to  passion  and  to  crime.  In  the  lapse  of  time, 
and  in  the  far-off  land  of  his  prodigality,  the  ghosts 
of  departed  scenes  of  innocence  flit  before  him,  and  the 
voice  of  the  heartbroken  mother  rings  amid  his  heart's 
emptiness,  and  though  dead,  she  yet  speaketh  with  an 
emphasis  and  effect  she  could  not  command  when 
living. 

We  may  vary  the  illustration  and  take  that  of  a  de- 
parted minister  of  Christ.  He  stood  as  the  ambassador 
of  God,  and  his  eye  kindled  with  the  fires  of  inspiration, 
and  his  face  glowed  with  rapture  as  he  gave  utterance 
to  the  great  messages  of  truth  and  salvation.  He 
shunned  not  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God : 

Yet  he  was  humble,  kind,  forgiving,  mild, 
And  with  all  patience  and  affection  taught, 
Rebuked,  persuaded,  solaced,  counseled,  warned, 
In  fervent  style  and  manner.    Needy  poor 
And  dying  men,  like  music,  heard  his  feet 
Approach  their  beds,  and  guilty  wretches  took 
New  hope,  and  in  his  prayers  wept  and  smiled 
And  blessed  him  as  they  died  forgiven ;  and  all 
Saw  in  his  face  contentment,  in  his  life 
The  path  to  glory  and  perpetual  joy. 


S.  D.  BURCHARD  159 

But  he  died !  the  voice  that  brought  consolation  to  the 
mourner's  heart  has  become  silent.  The  tongue  which 
poured  forth  the  irresistible  stream  of  sacred  eloquence 
has  become  mute  and  still.  The  eye  that  kindled  with 
almost  insufferable  luster  has  become  rayless,  and  the 
lips  on  which  hundreds  hung  with  breathless  attention 
have  been  closed  forever.  But  has  all  that  excellence 
died?  Is  all  his  usefulness  at  an  end?  No,  my  breth- 
ren, "he  being  dead  yet  speaketh."  His  example  lingers 
behind  him.  The  good  and  imperishable  of  his  nature 
walks  among  his  flock,  visiting  their  homes,  comforting 
the  sorrowing,  warning  the  wicked,  and  reasoning  in 
the  crowded  assembly  *'of  righteousness,  temperance, 
and  judgment  to  come."  And  the  multitude  may  not 
perceive  till  they  see  the  parting  wing  that  an  angel 
has  been  with  them. 

Often  there  comes  from  the  pastor  laid  in  his  grave 
a  more  tender  and  melting  eloquence  than  there  came 
from  the  same  pastor  when  standing  in  the  holy  place 
and  anointed  for  his  work,  and  from  the  herald  of 
Jesus  wrapped  in  his  winding  sheet,  a  more  successful 
sermon  than  from  the  herald  of  Jesus  robed  in  the 
vestments  of  his  oflScial  character.  And  aside  from 
this,  precious  and  perpetual  harvests  may  be  reaped 
by  his  successors  from  the  seed  sown  by  hands  that 
have  done  their  work.  But,  my  brethren,  this  is  the 
fair  side  of  the  picture,  and  were  the  influence  left 
behind  by  the  dead  always  of  this  character,  then 
would  men  be  throughout  their  entire  history  like 
angels  of  mercy  scattering  a  golden  radiance  from  their 
wings,  or  as  glorious  meteors  rising  in  rapid  succession 
over  a  world  of  darkness,  anticipating  and  heralding 
the  light  of  the  millennial  day. 


160        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

But  alas !  if  many  of  the  dead  yet  speak  for  God  and 
truth,  and  freedom,  and  opi^ressed  humanity,  others 
utter  a  different  voice,  and  leave  behind  them  a  curse 
instead  of  a  blessing.  Reverse  the  portraits  we  have 
just  sketched. 

Suppose  the  mother  to  whom  we  have  alluded,  in- 
stead of  training  up  her  children  "in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord,"  had  encouraged  them  both  by 
precept  and  example  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  fashion, 
worldliness,  and  sin,  to  neglect  God  and  the  great 
salvation,  what  is  the  influence  she  leaves  behind  her? 
The  same  voice  comes  from  her  grave  as  from  her 
home.  And  often  and  again  will  her  evil  maxims  be 
quoted,  and  her  life  of  thoughtless  gayety  appealed  to 
as  a  sanction  for  more  excessive  frivolity  and  sin.  She 
is  dead,  but  the  bane  of  her  example  lives ;  her  form  is 
beneath  the  sod,  but  her  voice  is  still  heard,  and  her 
specter  still  lingers  in  the  circle  of  her  children  and 
friends  as  a  mighty  incentive  to  evil. 

We  may  pass  from  this  to  a  higher  sphere,  and  take 
the  minister  whose  character  is  just  the  reverse  of  that 
to  which  we  have  referred : 

He  swore  In  sight  of  God 

And  man  to  preach  his  master  Jesus  Christ, 

Yet  preached  himself;  he  swore  that  love  of  souls 

Alone  had  drawn  him  to  the  Church,  yet  strowed 

The  path  that  led  to  hell  with  tempting  flowers. 

And  in  the  ear  of  sinners,  as  they  took 

The  way  of  death,  he  whispered  peace. 

The  man,  who  came  with  thirsty  soul  to  hear 

Of  Jesus,  went  away  unsatisfied; 

For  he  another  gospel  preached  than  Paul, 

And  one  that  had  no  Saviour  in  it,  and  yet 

His  life  was  worse. 


g.  D.  BURCHARD  161 

Now,  what  will  be  the  posthumous  influence  of  such 
a  minister?  Can  it  be  other  than  evil  only,  evil 
continually? 

The  field  on  which  he  laboretl  will  have  received  a 
blight  and  a  mildew.  The  gospel  has  been  belied,  and 
there  will  spring  up  a  harvest  of  infidelity. 

Thus  far  have  we  spoken  of  the  influence  for  good  or 
evil,  which  men  leave  behind  them  in  the  immediate 
circle  in  which  they  moved  while  living.  But  there  are 
other  ways  in  which  men  may  speak  to  the  coming 
generations,  as  with  a  voice  echoing  through  the  ages. 
We  refer  not  to  the  lettered  tombstones,  which  often 
tell  of  deeds  of  valor  and  of  a  loving  trust  in  God; 
nor  of  monuments  erected  to  commemorate  illustrious 
worth ;  nor  of  splendid  legacies  to  the  cause  of  benef- 
icence, which  enshrine  the  donor  in  the  memory  and 
affection  of  the  Church.  But  the  earth  is  filled  with 
the  labors — the  works  of  the  dead. 

Almost  all  the  literature — the  discoveries  of  science 
— the  glories  of  art — the  ever-enduring  temples — the 
dwelling  places  of  many  generations — the  comforts 
and  utilities  of  life — the  very  framework  of  society — 
the  institutions  of  nations — the  principles  of  govern- 
ment— the  fabrics  of  empire — all  are  the  works  of  our 
predecessors,  and  by  these,  though  dead,  they  yet  speak. 
Their  memorials  are  all  around  us — our  footsteps  are 
in  their  paths — their  presence  is  in  our  dwellings — 
their  voices  are  in  our  ears ;  they  speak  to  us  in  the  sad 
reverie  of  contemplation — in  the  sharp  pang  of  feeling 
— in  the  cold  shadow  of  memory — in  the  bright  light 
of  hope;  and  can  it  be  that  we  shall  not  be  influenced 
by  the  language  they  utter? 

But  the  dead  speak  through  the  press — the  books 


1G2        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

they  may  have  written — and  thus  perpetuate  their  in- 
fluence through  all  time.  Baxter,  Bunyan,  Doddridge, 
Howe,  and  Edwards  are  at  this  moment  speaking  to 
thousands,  with  all  the  freshness  and  force  of  personal 
eloquence,  and  more  souls  have  doubtless  been  con- 
verted through  their  instrumentality  since  they  entered 
upon  their  rest,  than  when  their  voices  were  heard  in 
the  assemblies  of  men.  The  gospel  trumpet  which  they 
here  put  to  their  lips  has  not  ceased  its  reverberating 
echo.  It  rolls  like  the  voice  of  a  clarion  along  down 
through  the  ages,  and  it  shall  continue  until  another 
trumpet  shall  be  heard  sounding  the  funeral  knell  of 
time. 

But  wicked  men,  too,  speak  through  the  press,  and 
live  in  their  writings  to  poison  the  fountains  of  in- 
fluence, to  corrupt  hearts  that  might  otherwise  have 
been  pure,  and  to  desolate  homes  that  otherwise  might 
have  been  hapi)y. 

It  will  be  the  keenest  sting  of  the  worm  which  never 
dies,  and  the  most  agonizing  pang  of  the  fire  which 
shall  never  be  quenched,  that  they  have  written  volumes 
which  are  circulated  by  every  library*  and  sold  by 
every  vender,  in  which  the  foundations  of  morality  are 
sapped,  and  thousands  of  souls  effectually  and  forever 
ruined. 

The  press,  my  brethren,  is  a  mighty  illustration  of 
the  truth  of  our  text.  It  shows  that  the  dead  live  and 
speak  and  exert  an  influence  in  moulding  the  character 
of  the  generations  which  succeed  them.  And  if  the 
wise  and  glorified  in  heaven  wish  that  their  pens  had 
been  more  industriously  employed,  the  fallen  and  lost 
in  hell  wish  that  their  hands  had  been  palsied  ere 
they  touched  the  scroll  which  was  to  scatter  plague 


S.  D.  BUKCHARD  163 

and  pestilence  through  ranks  of  living  men.  Thus  is 
the  sentiment  of  our  text  illustrated  and  confirmed, 
that  a  man  lives  and  speaks,  in  his  words  and  deeds 
and  influence,  after  he  is  dead. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  voice  in  the  providence  which  has 
bereaved  us,  that  touches  the  great  heart  of  the  nation, 
filling  it  with  sorrow  as  no  other  conceivable  event 
could  have  done.  We  can  conceive  of  nothing  short  of 
a  universal  earthquake,  or  the  sound  of  the  archangel's 
trump,  which  would  have  produced  the  gloom,  the  awe, 
the  consternation  which  now  surround  us.  Who  that 
contemplated  our  country  a  few  days  previous  to  this 
dreadful  calamity,  and  heard  the  shouts  of  victorious 
men,  and  saw  everywhere  the  symbols  of  joy  and  of 
triumph,  and  listened  to  the  expressions  of  hope,  could 
have  named  any  event,  not  miraculous,  which,  in  a 
moment,  as  it  were  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  would 
have  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  things,  would  banish 
mirth  from  all  the  gay,  composure  from  all  the  serene ; 
make  the  merchant  lay  down  his  fabrics,  the  scribe  his 
pen,  and  the  mechanic  his  tools;  unrobe  the  bride  of 
her  ornaments  and  the  bridegroom  of  his  attire,  change 
the  proclamations  of  chief  magistrates  from  days  of 
rejoicing  to  days  of  lamentation,  and  command  a  uni- 
versal pause  to  business  and  pleasure,  as  though  we 
all  were  anticipating  the  ushering  in  of  the  day  of 
doom?  Such  a  shock  was  inconceivable  from  the  most 
natural  causes!  But  God  has  done  it,  and  we  stand 
confronted  before  a  providence  so  mysterious,  a  provi- 
dence that  bereaves  us,  without  a  moment's  warning  or 
anticipation,  of  one  of  the  purest,  wisest,  and  safest  of 
men  that  ever  presided  over  the  interests  and  destinies 
of  a  great  people.    In  a  lecture  delivered  in  this  place 


1G4        LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

a  year  ago,  I  characterized  him  as  "the  type  man  of 
the  age."  Now  that  death  has  ensphered  and  im- 
mortalized him,  and  disarmed  envious  and  malignant 
criticism,  I  may  venture  to  quote  what  I  then  said, 
without  fear  of  giving  offense  to  any  one. 

"Having  thus  presented  Jefferson  Davis  as  the  type 
and  exponent  of  Southern  civilization,  we  come  now 
briefly  to  consider  our  type  man,  or  the  exponent  of 
Northern  civilization. 

"The  two  forms  of  civilization  are  distinctly  before 
you,  the  bases  on  which  they  respectively  rest,  the  prin- 
ciples which  they  embody,  and  the  spirit  with  which 
they  are  animated.  And  of  all  the  men  now  before  the 
public  eye,  whether  in  the  cabinet  or  in  the  field, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  censured  and  the  praised,  is  our 
ideal,  the  impersonation  of  republican  principles,  the 
thinker,  and  the  type  man  of  the  age !  I  am  aware  that 
this  avowal  is  in  advance  of  the  popular  sentiment,  but 
posterity  will  do  him  justice  and  give  him  his  appro- 
priate niche  in  the  temple  of  fame.  He  is  not  perfect ; 
he  needs  refinement  and  taste.  Just  as  our  civilization 
is  not  perfect;  it  is  in  its  boyhood  state;  it  needs 
development,  especially  in  its  aesthetic  forms.  It  is 
not  graceful ;  nor  wrought  out  into  perfect  symmetry 
and  beauty.  Neither  is  Lincoln  handsome;  but  he  is 
frank,  generous,  and  true.  He  has  muscle  and  sinew. 
He  has  wrought  in  the  log  cabin;  on  the  flatboats  of 
the  Mississippi :  he  has  w^restled  with  poverty  and  the 
tall  forest  trees  of  the  West.  He  is,  in  the  strictest 
sense,  a  man  of  the  working  classes.  He  was  born  to 
the  inheritance  of  hard  work  as  truly  as  the  poorest 
laborer's  son  that  digs  in  the  field;  and  yet,  by  the 
strength  of  his  intellect  and  by  his  untiring  devotion 


S.  D.  BURCHARD  Km 

to  truth  and  right  he  has  come  up,  through  ;ia 
ascending  series,  from  the  walks  of  the  lowly,  from 
the  toils  of  a  day-laborer,  to  stand  at  the  head  of 
one  of  the  most  powerful  nations  on  the  earth!  Is 
he  not  great?  Is  he  not  entitled  to  our  confidence  and 
esteem  ? 

"Our  ship  of  state  is  now  in  a  storm  of  fearful  magni- 
tude— the  elements  are  in  high  commotion,  and  every 
part  of  her  noble  structure  is  strained  to  the  utmost 
tension,  but  the  mind  of  the  thinker  is  calm,  and  his 
strong  hand  is  on  the  helm.  The  eyes  of  all  nations 
are  turned  to  this  plain  backwoodsman,  with  his  good 
sense,  his  noble  generosity,  his  determined  self-reliance, 
and  his  incorruptible  integrity,  as  he  sits  amid  the  war 
of  conflicting  elements,  striving  to  guide  the  national 
ship  through  a  tempest,  at  whose  violence  and  perils 
the  world's  wisest  and  oldest  statesmen  stand  aghast. 
Leave  him  at  the  helm  and  he  will  bring  the  vessel, 
with  all  her  sails  set  and  her  pennants  flying,  to  the 
desired  haven,  though  the  old  scow  which  she  has 
towed  and  which  has  retarded  her  progress  from 
the  beginning  will  have  been  sunk  to  the  bottom, 
never  again  to  rise  to  the  surface  on  our  American 
waters ! 

"Lincoln  is  a  strong  man,  but  his  strength  is  of  a 
peculiar  kind ;  it  is  not  aggressive  so  much  as  passive, 
and  among  passive  things  it  is  like  the  strength,  not  so 
much  of  a  stone  buttress  as  of  a  wire  cable.  It  is 
strength  swaying  to  every  influence,  yielding  on  this 
side  and  on  that  to  popular  and  present  needs,  yet 
tenaciously  and  inflexibly  bound  to  carry  its  great  end. 
Surrounded  at  first  by  all  sorts  of  conflicting  claims 
and  elements,  by  traitors,  by  timid  loyalists,  by  radi- 


166       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

cals,  and  conservatives,  he  has  listened  to  all,  weighed 
the  words  of  all,  watched,  waited  for  light;  but  still 
self-reliant  and  full  of  hope,  he  has  kept  steadily  to  the 
cue  great  purpose;  and  let  him  alone  and  the  issue  is 
certain — the  rebellion  will  be  crushed — the  Union  re- 
stored— our  national  honor  vindicated,  and  America 
shall  be  all  that  poets  have  dreamed  or  sung:  'The 
home  of  the  brave  and  the  land  of  the  free !' " 

Are  not  these  true  words?  Some  of  you  then 
thought  that  they  were  said  for  party  effect,  but  they 
were  spoken  out  of  the  convictions  of  an  honest  heart. 
Has  he  not  done  what  was  predicted  of  him?  And 
when  the  storm-fiend  was  on  the  waters  and  the  tempest 
rose  high,  and  we  all  trembled  with  apprehension,  did 
he  not  abide  calm  in  the  ship,  his  hand  steady  on  the 
helm,  and  when  the  storm  lulled  and  the  sky  began  to 
clear  and  the  sun  to  burst  forth  from  the  darkened 
clouds,  and  we  saw  the  old  ship  gallantly  nearing  a 
peaceful  harbor,  the  stars  and  the  stripes  floating  from 
her  topmost  mast,  and  the  multitude  on  the  shore  all 
jubilant  with  hope — all  elated  with  joy — lo!  the  pilot 
falls  by  a  cowardly  assassin,  cold  and  unconscious  on 
the  deck,  his  hand  still  at  the  helm.  The  commander 
is  dead,  but  the  ship  is  safe!  The  flag  floats  at  half 
mast,  but  the  stars  and  stripes  are  all  there!  Let  our 
mourning  then  be  tempered  with  gratitude  that  our 
beloved  chief  was  permitted  to  live  to  accomplish  his 
work.  He  could  not  have  died  with  greater  luster,  when 
his  laurels  were  all  fresh  and  green,  and  now,  the 
auroral  halo  of  the  martyr  will  preserve  them  unfading 
through  all  ages.  And  now,  my  hearers,  what  is  the 
voice  addressed  to  us  from  the  life,  teachings,  and  ex- 
ample of  our  deceased  President? 


S.  D.  BURCHARD  167 

First,  that  "honesty  is  the  best  policy";  that  to  do 
right  is  the  wisest  and  safest,  leaving  our  reputation 
and  all  consequences  in  the  hand  of  God. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  administration  was  characterized 
by  no  crooked  or  sinister  policy.  He  was  called  to  his 
responsible  position  at  a  time  the  most  difficult  and 
dangerous  to  the  interests  and  life  of  the  nation,  when 
treason  was  rampant  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
land — when  rebellion  assumed  an  attitude  the  most 
menacing  and  appalling — when  the  great  republic 
seemed  to  be  shaken  to  its  very  foundations  and  the 
wisest  statesmen  trembled  for  the  result.  But  the 
President  was  calm  and  firm.  He  sought  to  know  his 
duty  and  then  to  do  it.  He  adopted  his  policy,  and 
determined  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  govern- 
ment and  to  vindicate  her  laws.  To  this  end  he  saw 
that  the  rebellion  must  be  subdued,  and  when  those 
in  arms  would  not  yield  to  wise  and  paternal  counsel 
he  resolved  to  settle  the  great  questions  at  issue  by  the 
stern  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  He  called  for  large 
forces  and  the  munitions  of  war.  The  people  nobly 
and  promptly  responded,  for  our  national  honor  had 
been  insulted  and  our  national  life  was  in  jeopardy. 
Thousands  of  our  best  and  bravest  from  all  the  loyal 
North  rushed  to  the  rescue  of  our  imperiled  country. 
They  fought — they  fell  on  many  a  battlefield.  The 
rebels  were  desperate,  and  when  our  noble  President 
discovered  that  slavery  was  to  them  a  source  of 
strength  he  resolved  to  strike  the  monster  to  the  earth. 
The  timid  feared ;  the  semi-loyal  press  howled,  and  the 
more  rebellious  heaped  abuse  upon  the  President. 
Nothing  was  too  vile  for  them  to  say.  His  policy  was 
all   wrong.     He   was   threatened   and   villified.     But 


168        LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

Abraliain  Lincoln  was  firm  in  the  calm  consciousness 
of  right  and  duty. 

But  where  are  his  accusers  now?  The  Daily  Neics 
and  the  World,  that  never  had  a  kind  word  to  offer — 
that  indulged  in  unmeasured  vituperation  and  abuse 
while  he  was  living,  are  among  the  first  to  do  him 
honor  now  that  he  is  dead.  Have  they  been  converted? 
Has  death  changed  their  views?  No,  my  brethren;  in 
their  deep  heart  they  knew  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
honest  and  true  to  his  country's  weal.  But  they  were 
under  the  ban  of  party,  and  could  not  speak  peaceably 
of  him.  His  acts  survive  him;  his  deeds  live,  and  by 
these,  though  dead,  he  yet  speaketh.  Posterity  will 
do  justice  to  his  memory,  and  he  will  be  known  in 
history  as  the  great  Emancipator — the  savior  of  his 
country.  The  almost  universal  feeling  even  now  is, 
that  in  his  death  liberty  has  lost  her  greatest  champion, 
humanity  her  truest  friend,  and  America  her  purest 
patriot. 

What  then  is  the  voice  that  comes  to  us  from  out  the 
background  of  his  noble  life? 

Be  honest — true  to  your  convictions  of  right — firm 
in  duty,  leaving  all  issues  with  God.  This  marked  his 
character  and  will  give  immortality  to  his  name. 

Another  voicej  which  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh  to 
us,  is  the  folly  and  sin  of  putting  our  trust  in  an  arm  of 
flesh.    He  did  not. 

If  any  man  ever  cherished  a  firm  reliance  on  Divine 
Providence,  it  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  Listen  to  his 
address  to  his  fellow-citizens,  when  first  leaving  his 
home  for  the  scene  of  his  labors.  He  says:  "A  duty 
devolves  upon  me  which  is  perhaps  greater  than  that 
which  has  devolved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days 


S.  D.  BUKCHARD  169 

of  Washington.  He  never  would  have  succeeded  except 
for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he,  at  all 
times,  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the 
same  Divine  aid,  which  sustained  him,  and  on  the  same 
Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support ;  and  I 
hope  you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive 
that  Divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  suc- 
ceed, but  with  which  success  is  certain." 

Through  all  the  progress  of  this  terrible  war,  his 
trust  has  been  not  so  much  in  the  strength  of  his 
armies,  or  the  skill  of  his  chief  captains,  as  in  the 
favoring  providence  of  God.  His  last  inaugural  is  an 
outflow  of  a  heart  trusting  in  God,  in  which  he  con- 
fesses he  has  been  the  child  of  his  providence,  and 
simply  an  instrument  in  his  hand. 

But  our  danger  all  along  has  been  in  trusting  to  an 
arm  of  flesh.  In  the  early  history  of  the  war  one  man 
received  almost  universal  homage  until  hope  deferred, 
the  national  heart  fainted.  And  now,  in  our  more 
recently  brilliant  successes,  we  are  in  danger  of  over- 
looking the  true  source  of  success  in  the  prominence 
given  to  the  instrumentalities  employed.  But  from  the 
life,  as  well  as  from  the  grave  of  the  President,  comes 
this  startling  admonition : 

"Lean  not  on  earth;  'twill  pierce  thee  to  the  heart; 
A  broken  reed  at  best — but  oft  a  spear, — 
On  its  sharp  point,  peace  bleeds  and  hope  expires." 

A  similar  warning  comes  from  the  Divine  Oracle: 
"Put  not  your  trust  in  princes,  nor  in  the  son  of 
man,  in  whom  there  is  no  help.    His  breath  goeth  forth, 
he  returneth  to  his  earth ;  in  that  very  day  his  thoughts 
perish."— Psalm  U6.  3,  4. 


170        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

The  thoughts  of  our  late  President  respecting  the 
welfare,  peace,  and  prosperity  of  the  country,  though 
they  lingered  with  him  to  the  last,  have  perished. 
He  had  done  his  work  of  subduing  the  rebellion. 
Other  hands  must  do  the  work  of  punishing  the 
rebels  and  reconstructing  the  government,  and  in 
this,  as  in  the  other,  we  need  the  Divine  guidance  and 
blessing. 

Not  Seward  nor  all  the  wisdom  of  the  national 
council,  but  God,  must  help  us  to  the  end.  And  as  his 
hand  has  been  so  obviously  in  the  great  struggle  guid- 
ing our  armies,  may  we  not  hope  that  he  will  be  with 
us  presiding  over  our  councils  in  the  restoration  of 
peace  and  union?  And  in  this  work  of  pacification 
and  reconstruction^  in  my  utterance  this  day  I  think 
I  have  the  mind  of  God.  If  I  were  the  President  I 
would  show  no  mercy  to  traitors  and  rebels  and  assas- 
sins at  the  expense  of  justice.  I  would  see  to  it  that 
the  majesty  of  law  was  vindicated  and  the  government 
sustained,  if  it  required  a  whole  hecatomb  of  human 
victims.  Shall  we  hate  and  punish  theft  and  arson, 
and  murder,  and  shall  we  fraternize  with  treason  and 
rebellion?  "Tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  the 
streets  of  Askelon,  lest  the  daughters  of  the  Philistines 
rejoice,  lest  the  daughters  of  the  uncircumcised  tri- 
umph." 

Again,  had  I  the  ears  of  the  heads  of  this  govern- 
ment, I  would  say,  in  its  reconstruction,  whatever  else 
you  do  or  fail  to  do,  let  not  one  vestige  or  germ  of 
that  accursed  system,  which  has  been  the  cause  of  all 
our  trouble,  remain.  Let  it  be  uptorn,  root  and  branch, 
and  thrown  into  the  great  dead  sea  of  past  time !  Let 
there  be  no  yielding,  no  concession,  no  compromise 


S.  D.  BURCHARD  171 

here  unless  you  would  have  history  repeat  itself  in  a 
second  fratricidalj  and  still  more  desperate  and  bloody 
war! 

The  only  remaining  utterance  or  voice  which  comes 
to  us  from  the  life  and  the  grave  of  our  lamented 
President,  is  in  reference  to  the  evanescent  nature  of 
all  earthly  good.  He  had  reached  the  acme  of  human 
fame ;  he  was  the  commander  in  chief  of  half  a  million 
of  armed  men;  he  was  the  ruler  of  a  mighty  nation; 
he  was  in  the  meridian  of  his  days;  he  was  esteemed 
for  his  personal  character  and  worth;  and  yet  in  a 
moment  how  is  the  mighty  fallen,  and  all  the  glory  of 
his  fame  is  to  him  as  though  it  has  never  been. 

But  few  of  all  the  wrestlers  reach  the  goal  of  their 
ambition,  or  realize  their  hopes.  And  such  as  do,  have 
only  stood  for  a  short  time  on  the  giddy  height,  and 
then  vanished  like  the  passing  meteor,  or  died  a  sudden 
and,  perhaps,  a  violent  death.  Caesar  met  with  the 
assassin's  dagger  in  the  Roman  senate.  Charles  the 
First,  King  of  England,  and  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
were  beheaded.  Henry  the  Fourth,  King  of  France, 
died  by  the  knife  of  the  assassin.  Napoleon  the  First 
was  banished.  Alexander,  after  his  brilliant  career, 
died  in  a  drunken  revel,  at  an  early  age.  And  now  our 
beloved  President  is  added,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
vanishing  nature  of  all  human  greatness.  He,  too, 
has  died  by  the  hand  of  violence. 

Death  sltteth  in  the  Capitol!    His  sable  wing 
Flung  its  black  shadow  o'er  a  country's  hope, 
And  lo!  a  nation  bendeth  down  in  tears. 

Never  was  grief  so  heartfelt  and  universal.  It  is 
said  that  death  loves  a  shining  mark,  and  often  against 


172        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

such  are  his  swiftest  arrows  hurled.  All  that  we  love, 
value,  venerate,  and  press  to  our  hearts,  must  bow 
to  the  inevitable  decree,  "Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust 
thou  must  return."  But  when  the  end  comes  by  vio- 
lence, how  doubly  inconsolable  is  the  grief!  But  still 
this  tragedy  has  its  voice,  and  will  answer  its  provi- 
dential end, 

A  thrill  of  horror  through  the  nation  sweeps, 

And  tears  of  anguish  from  the  eyelids  fall; 

All  party  ties  and  lines  forgotten  are, 

And  thus  in  grief,  if  not  in  patriotic  joy. 

The  nation  is  as  one. 

'Twere  well  to  weep  such  tears. 

They  purge  the  heart,  and  to  the  soul  give  strength 

To  do  great  deeds,  when  deeds  are  needed  most; 

Who  loves  his  country,  therefore,  shame  not  now 

O'er  her  great  woe,  with  me  to  weep. 

For  now  each  sigh  is  hut  a  bitter  oath, 

Each  tear  a  seal,  which  makes  the  oath  a  bond, 

That  every  loyal  heart  doth  feel  and  swear 

Upon  the  altar  of  his  country's  cause, 

Which,  by  the  sacrilegious  hand  of  one 

Who  would  deface  the  noblest  work  of  God 

Without  a  sigh,  hath  been  outraged, 

As  never  did  a  fiend  the  laws  of  God 

Or  man  outrage  before! 

But  the  assassin,  though  he  may  elude  the  vigilance 
of  the  government  for  a  time,  cannot  escape.  The  mark 
of  Cain  is  on  his  brow,  the  murderer's  guilt  is  on  his 
soul)  and  the  Nemesis  of  vengeance  will  find  him  out, 
and  bring  him  to  an  awful  retribution.  But  though 
justice  may  thus  be  satisfied,  though  the  act  may  have 
been  sufl'ered  in  the  Divine  providence  to  tone  up  the 
public  mind  to  a  keener  sense  of  retributive  justice, 
still  all  this  does  not  recall  the  people's  favorite — the 


S.  D.  BURCHAKD  17:^. 

type-man  of  his  time— our  generous,  noble,  and  patri- 
otic President. 

Gone,  gone,  gone,  to  his  blest  and  honored  grave. 

Gone,  gone,  alas!  our  noble,  and  true,  and  brave; 

When  fond  hopes  clustered  around  his  life. 

When  every  heart  with  love  was  rife, 

Our  brave,  true  chieftain  fell. 

Lincoln,  Lincoln,  beloved,  fare  thee  well! 

Our  country's  flag  around  him  fold, 
What  shroud  more  meet  for  heart  so  brave, 

A  nation's  prayer  shall  bless  his  mold, 
A  nation's  tears  bedew  his  grave. 

And  shall  we  bear  one  word  of  scorn? 
One  rebel  taunt,  one  hostile  sneer? 

No!  freemen,  no!  his  foes  we  spurn, 
And  pledge  our  fealty  round  his  bier. 

Freemen!  behold  your  murdered  chief. 
His  memory  to  your  care  we  trust; 

Let  mercy  mingle  with  your  grief. 
But  strike  the  traitors  to  the  dust. 

Sleep  on,  brave  chief,  the  flag  you  bore 
O'er  North  and  South,  shall  surely  wave. 

And  Union,  peace,  and  love  once  more 
Shall  meet  and  mourn  around  your  grave. 


XI 

KEV.  SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR,  D.D. 

I  MEET  you  to-day,  my  friends  and  fellow-country- 
men, under  circumstances  of  the  greatest  public  grief 
and  sorrow.  I  had  risen  early  Saturday  morning  to 
complete  the  first  of  two  sermons,  having  for  my  theme 
"Victory  and  its  Duties;"  and  expecting  to  have 
preached  that  sermon  to  you  at  this  time.  I  waited 
for  the  morning  paper,  and  when  it  came  it  brought 
to  me,  as  it  did  to  you,  the  intelligence  of  the  most 
awful  event  in  the  history  of  this  country.  The  carrier 
greeted  me  with  a  tearful  and  saddened  countenance, 
exclaiming:  "Sad  news  this  morning!  The  President 
is  shot !"  I  could  scarcely  believe  it  true ;  yet  I  opened 
the  paper  and  read  the  dispatches,  and  saw  that  it 
was  so.  Ere  this  the  news  has  spread  through  all 
parts  of  the  land,  kindling  emotions  in  the  hearts  of 
the  nation  which  no  words  can  describe.  But  yester- 
day we  were  joyous  and  hopeful,  thanking  God  for 
his  mercies,  and  congratulating  each  other  upon  the 
bright  prospects  of  the  future.  Our  recent  victories 
gave  promise  of  a  speedy  and  lasting  peace.  We  saw, 
as  we  supposed,  the  end  of  this  terrible  war.  How 
suddenly  and  how  awfully  have  our  emotions  been 
changed  into  those  of  the  deepest  sorrow!  Who  can 
refuse  to  weep?  Who  can  withhold  his  tears  or  com- 
mand his  feelings  at  such  a  moment?    And  is  it  so? 

174 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  175 

Has  the  President  of  these  United  States ;  the  personal 
representative  of  the  honor,  glory,  and  dignity  of  this 
nation;  the  man  of  the  peojjle's  choice;  the  man  who 
has  guided  the  ship  of  state  with  consummate  wisdom 
and  unfaltering  integrity  during  these  stormy  years; 
the  man  whom  God  seems  to  have  raised  up  and  sig- 
nally qualified  for  the  duties  of  this  great  crisis — yes, 
has  Abraham  Lincoln,  good  in  his  greatness  and  great 
in  his  goodness,  fallen  the  victim  of  murderous  assas- 
sination, just  in  the  moment  of  our  triumph  ?  And  has 
his  honorable  Secretary  of  State  been  assailed  with 
the  instrument  of  death  for  a  like  purpose?  We  pause 
in  the  profoundest  astonishment.  Our  indignation  in 
one  direction,  and  our  sorrow  in  the  other,  are  past 
all  utterance.  The  American  people  never  felt  this  as 
they  do  to-day.  They  never  before  had  such  an  occa- 
sion for  feeling.  We  all  feel  the  dreadful  blow.  It  has 
fallen  upon  us  like  a  thunderbolt  in  the  midst  of  our 
joys.  To  the  deep  and  pungent  thrill  of  the  national 
heart  no  human  words  can  do  any  adequate  justice. 

1.  Looking  towards  earth,  and  at  man,  one  instinc- 
tively inquires,  why  has  the  assassinating  hand  sought 
the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  that  of  William  H. 
Seward?  Why  has  the  President  of  these  United 
States  been  marked  for  death  ?  The  answer  is  a  plain 
one.  It  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  was  the  President, 
oflacially  entrusted  with  the  executive  duty  of  adminis- 
tering the  military  power  of  this  government  for  the 
suppression  of  a  wanton  and  wicked  rebellion  against 
the  constituted  authorities  of  the  land.  This  was  Mr. 
Lincoln's  sole  offense.  The  murderous  weapon  was  not 
aimed  at  him  as  a  man,  but  as  the  President  of  these 
United  States — as  God's  minister  for  the  punishment 


176        LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

of  evil  doers  and  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well.  It 
was  therefore  aimed  at  you  and  at  me — at  every  man, 
woman  and  child  living  under  the  protection  of  this 
government;  at  public  order,  at  the  sanctity  of  law, 
at  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  and  at  the  God  who 
commands  our  subjection  to  the  powers  that  be.  This 
is  the  true  interpretation  of  the  blow  sought  to  be 
struck ;  and  this  it  is  that  gives  significance  to  the  act. 
We  look  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  murdered  President, 
and  not  as  a  man  falling  in  the  private  walks  of  life, 
the  victim  of  a  purely  personal  vengeance.  The  blood 
that  flowed  from  his  lacerated  brain  was  in  the  cir- 
cumstances official  blood.  The  pistol-shot  that  hurried 
him  to  his  doom  was  fired  into  the  heart  of  the  nation. 
I  do  not  wish  to  stir  either  your  passions  or  my  own 
to  undue  violence;  yet  I  think  it  best  in  this  dreadful 
hour  to  look  at  facts  as  they  are  and  speak  of  things 
as  they  are.  Abraham  Lincoln  will  go  dowm  to  pos- 
terity as  a  murdered  and  a  martyred  President — 
slain  for  discharging  his  duty,  honored  by  God,  and 
trusted  by  a  grateful  people.  In  his  death  we  all  feel 
the  pangs  of  death.  Well  may  the  nation  bow  in  grief. 
Well  may  all  party  feeling  and  rancor  subside,  while  a 
whole  people  weep  before  God  under  an  oppressive 
sense  of  the  calamity  which  has  befallen  them. 

2.  Looking  at  the  circumstances  attending  this  sad 
event,  we  inquire :  Whence  came  the  blow  ?  It  was  on 
the  evening  of  the  day  when  the  flag  of  the  Union  again 
floated  in  triumph  over  the  war-scarred  walls  of  Fort 
Sumter.  It  was  when  the  nation  had  flung  her  proud 
flag  to  the  breeze  in  the  fullness  of  grateful  joy ;  when 
victories  had  seemingly  extinguished  the  last  hope  of 
the  rebel  insurgents ;  when  Jefferson  Davis,  the  traitor 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  177 

and  the  tyrant,  was  fleeing  from  the  hand  of  avenging 
justice.  It  was  at  a  time  and  in  a  place  when  and 
where  our  great  military  commander  was  expected  to 
be  present,  who  was  doubtless*  marked  for  the  same 
fate.  The  thing  was  done  under  circumstances  that 
clearly  imply  plan  and  concert  of  action,  and  more 
parties  than  one  as  involved  in  this  stupendous  guilt. 
Why  was  Mr.  Seward  assaulted  at  the  same  time  and 
in  a  diflferent  place?  And  who  held  the  horses  of 
these  fiends  in  human  shape,  while  each  proceeded  to 
the  work  of  death  ?  I  know  not,  my  friends,  who  these 
men  are;  but  I  cannot  well  resist  the  conclusion  that 
they  represent  a  class — and,  I  must  add,  a  very  large 
class — of  those  with  whom  we  have  been  contending 
in  this  war,  who  will  rejoice  when  they  hear  the  news, 
and  laud  these  murderous  wretches  as  distinguished 
heroes.  I  do  not  say  that  a  large  number  of  persons 
were  directly  privy  to  this  assassinating  conspiracy; 
yet,  you  may  depend  upon  it,  the  agents  thereof  had 
their  accomplices.  This,  let  me  tell  you,  is  the  work  of 
traitors,  coming  from  the  same  impulses  and  inspired 
by  the  same  hellish  motives  which  have  governed 
traitors  in  seeking  the  destruction  of  this  government. 
It  is  one  of  the  dread  incidents  of  their  treason,  ac- 
complished in  the  moment  of  their  extremest  despera- 
tion. It  is  the  work  of  men  the  same  in  kind  as  those 
who  sought  to  wrap  the  city  of  New  York,  in  one  uni- 
versal conflagration ;  the  same  in  kind  as  those  who 
refused  all  quarter  to  our  colored  soldiers  at  Fort 
Pillow ;  the  same  in  kind  as  those  who  sacked  the  city 
of  Lawrence,  in  Kansas,  and  murdered  its  helpless 
citizens.  It  is  a  work  proceeding  from  the  same  spirit, 
the  same  style  and  temper  of  humanity,  that  has,  by 


178        LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

the  process  of  slow  starvation,  deliberately  murdered 
our  prisoners  of  war  by  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands. 

Jefiferson  Davis,  the  head  of  the  rebel  Confederacy, 
has  not  personally  assassinated  the  President,  I  am 
aware — perhaps  he  had  no  direct  connection  with  this 
atrocious  murder — yet,  by  his  authority,  by  his  agents, 
with  his  knowledge  and  approbation,  thousands  of  our 
soldiers  have  been  literally  starved  to  death  in  rebel 
prisons.  General  Lee  may  be  a  Christian  gentleman — 
some  people  say  he  is — ^yet  he  is  a  traitor  to  his  coun- 
try, who  richly  deserves  to  be  hung  for  his  crimes. 
Libby  Prison  and  Belle  Isle  were  directly  under  his 
eye  at  Richmond ;  he  knew  how  our  prisoners  were 
treated  in  those  dens  of  death  as  well  as  elsewhere; 
he  was,  too,  the  man  of  great  influence  in  the  Con- 
federate government ;  and  when  and  where  did  General 
Lee  ever  lift  his  voice,  or  do  a  solitary  thing  to  mitigate 
these  outrageous  enormities?  I  am  speaking  in  a  plain 
way.  My  soul  is  stirred  within  me.  These  are  serious 
times.  Let  me  tell  you,  my  friends  and  fellow  country- 
men, that  this  act  of  assassination  does  not  stand  alone 
by  itself.  It  is  one  of  a  series.  It  has  a  common  basis 
with  other  acts  of  kindred  character.  It  represents 
and  identifies  itself  with  a  class  of  acts,  as  it  will 
crown  them  with  an  immortality  of  infamy.  It  is  the 
creature  of  treason;  and  this  treason  is  the  child  of 
slavery;  and  this  slavery  has  made  the  traitors  bar- 
barians, who  would  rather  rule  in  hell  than  submit  in 
heaven.  The  history  of  this  war  proves  it.  We  may 
as  well  understand  first  as  last  with  what  kind  of  men 
we  are  and  have  been  dealing  in  this  dreadful  contest 
of  arms.    They  are  desperate  men.    Slavery  has  made 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  179 

them  insensible  to  the  rights  of  our  common  humanity, 
ruined  their  moral  sense,  and  just  fitted  them  for  the 
work  of  treason  and  death.  Our  excellent  President, 
for  whom  we  have  so  often  thanked  the  God  of  heaven, 
who  in  his  life  so  beautifully  recognized  the  providence 
and  the  grace  of  the  King  of  kings,  from  whose  past 
wisdom  we  have  received  so  many  blessings,  and  in 
whose  future  we  had  hoped  so  largely,  now  lies  in  death 
— stricken  down  by  a  traitor's  hand,  I  have  been 
compelled  to  ask,  in  view  of  the  circumstances,  whence 
came  the  blow  ?  Not  simply  from  the  daring  fiend  who 
inflicted  it,  but  from  a  source  more  generic  and  uni- 
versal. Treason  fired  that  shot,  and  treason  killed  the 
President,  and  slavery  made  the  man  and  the  men  fit 
for  such  deeds.  And  treason  wants  nothing  but  power 
to  kill  this  nation.  It  has  never  yielded  to  anything 
but  power,  and  it  never  will.  The  men  in  whom  is 
embodied  this  spirit  of  treason,  who  are  its  leaders 
and  great  sources,  must  be  absolutely  crushed  and 
utterly  blasted  in  this  country.  You  can  never  have 
any  peace  with  them.  You  can  never  make  any 
peace  with  them.  They  are  not  the  men  of  peace. 
The  military  arm  of  the  government  must  first  subju- 
gate them ;  and  then  a  just  and  righteous  retribution 
must  so  dispose  of  them  that  they  will  be  virtually 
dead  to  the  country.  Then  you  will  have  peace;  and 
till  then  you  will  not. 

3.  Looking  again  at  this  sorrowful  event,  I  am  led 
to  submit  another  question :  Who  are  the  mourners, 
the  men  and  women  that  will  be  afflicted  by  this  appal- 
ling tragedy?  The  family  of  our  dead  President,  his 
wife  and  children  and  immediate  kindred,  are  at  this 
moment  bathed  in  the  most  heart-rending  sorrow.    He 


180        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

• 

who  was  the  pride  and  glory  of  their  lives,  whose 
relation  to  them  had  lifted  them  to  position  and  honor, 
in  whose  private  and  public  character  they  could  not 
but  rejoice,  has  fallen  in  a  way  to  give  death  its  deepest 
affliction  and  grief  its  most  poignant  sting.  Alas!  for 
them  the  husband,  the  father,  and  the  guide,  is  no  more. 
May  the  God  of  grace  comfort  them  with  that  comfort 
which  God  only  can  supply.  The  members  of  his 
cabinet,  who  have  so  often  shared  with  the  President 
in  the  councils  of  state ;  the  generals  and  other  oflScers 
of  his  appointment,  who  have  so  nobly  borne  the  banner 
of  their  country  on  many  a  hard-fought  field;  the 
common  soldiers  who,  under  this  waving  banner,  have 
braved  the  storm  of  death  and  driven  the  rebel  hosts 
in  confusion  before  them; — these  men  of  wisdom  and 
these  men  of  valor  are  to-day  in  tears.  Their  sensi- 
bilities are  overwhelmed.  They  mourn  the  loss  of  one 
whom  they  had  learned  to  trust,  and  who  had  learned 
to  trust  them.  All  truly  loyal  men  and  women  through- 
out the  nation  are  mourners  to-day.  Every  right- 
thinking  man  feels  as  if  he  had  lost  a  dear  friend. 
During  his  administration  Mr.  Lincoln  has  displayed 
qualities  of  intellect  and  heart  which  have  commended 
him  to  the  strongest  confidence  and  affection  of  the 
American  people.  His  sterling  honesty,  his  sagacious 
and  far-reaching  common  sense,  his  abiding  faith,  his 
hopeful  temper,  his  enduring  patience,  his  fidelity  to 
the  country's  cause,  his  amiable,  forgiving,  and  unre- 
vengeful  mood  of  feeling,  his  profound  respect  for  the 
rights  of  man  and  his  deep  reverence  for  God,  mark 
him  as  the  man  whom  the  people  loved.  Millions  who 
never  saw  him  felt  towards  Mr.  Lincoln  the  tender 
attachments  of  personal  friendship.  There  was  a  charm 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  181 

about  his  character  and  his  life  which  it  is  not  in 
human  nature  to  defy  or  resist.  Go  where  you  will 
to-day  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  land 
— in  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  or  the  palaces  of  the 
rich — and  you  will  see  a  people  bowed  in  sorrow.  A 
nation  weeps  to-day.  A  nation's  President  has  been 
assassinated  in  the  capital  of  the  country;  a  nation's 
President  has  fallen  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness, 
when  his  experience  was  so  much  needed  to  complete 
what  he  had  so  well  begun ;  and  now  a  nation  mourns, 
as  perhaps  no  other  people  ever  did  mourn.  When  I 
think  of  the  foul  and  villainous  murderer,  and  of  the 
generic  inspiration  which  he  represents — by  which  he 
was  moved — my  rage,  I  confess,  knows  no  bounds; 
and  when  I  think  of  the  sequel  of  that  deadly  shot, 
my  heart  sinks  within  me.  As  I  feel,  so  you  feel ;  and 
so  feels  every  man  that  deserves  the  name  of  an  Amer- 
ican citizen.  Honored  and  sacred  dead!  this  tribute 
we  bring  to  thy  memory.  Thy  name  shall  be  dear  to 
us.  Thou  art  embalmed  in  a  nation's  grief.  There  is 
another  class  of  our  fellowmen  that  may  well  mourn 
to-day,  bringing  their  tribute  of  gratitude  and  love, 
and  placing  it  upon  the  altar  of  a  great  and  good  man. 
I  allude  to  the  suffering  sons  of  human  bondage.  These 
sable  victims  of  outrage  and  wrong  have  heard  of  Mr. 
Lincoln.  They  have  heard  of  his  emancipation  procla- 
mation. They  have  learned  to  identify  their  hopes  of 
liberty  with  his  name;  and  when  they  shall  hear  of  his 
death,  in  the  simplicity  and  honesty  of  their  hearts 
they  will  feel  that  a  friend  has  departed,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
though  not  a  fanatic,  was  by  nature  and  conviction,  by 
those  generous  moral  sentiments  with  which  kind 
heaven  had  inspired  his  bosom,  the  friend  of  the  op- 


182        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

pressed.     He   saw   and   deplored   the   great   evils   of 
slavery,  and  gave  his  public  influence  on  the  side  of 
freedom.    When  he  issued  his  emancipation  proclama- 
tion as  a  measure  of  war,  he  appealed  to  the  God  of 
nations  and  the  moral  sense  of  the  civilized  world  for 
the  justice  of  the  act.     To  that  proclamation  he  de- 
clared his  purpose  to  adhere;  and  to  it  he  has  adhered 
with  unflinching  fidelity.    That  proclamation  will  make 
Mr.  Lincoln's  name  dear  in  all  ages.     It  will  be  read 
and  quoted  as  a  state  paper  of  the  highest  rank  and 
the  largest  philanthropy.    Well  may  the  outcast  sons 
of  bondage  bless  God  for  the  life  of  such  a  man,  and 
well  may  they  mourn  over  his  death.    They  have  tears 
to  shed  to-day — tears,  too,  that  do  honor  to  the  man 
for  whom  they  weep.    One  of  their  most  eminent  and 
valuable  friends  now  lies  in  death,  assaulted  by  hands 
red  with  treason,  a  victim  of  the  malign  and  cruel 
spirit  which  has  so  long  afflicted  them.     They  will 
understand,    and    the    world    will    understand,    that 
slavery  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  causes  which  have 
murdered  our  President.    And,  my  hearers,  when  the 
sad  news  shall  cross  the  water,  and  fly  over  the  nations 
of  Europe,  all  the  lovers  of  liberty  will  stand  aghast 
with  surprise.     They  will  join  with  us  in  our  public 
sorrows.    The  excitement  and  grief  occasioned  by  this 
fearful  tragedy  will  be  worldwide.     The  memory  of 
the  scene  will  last  as  long  as  time  endures.  Alas !  alas ! 
for  my  country,  when  her  Presidents,  her  men  in  high 
office,  her  patriots,  her  good  and  great  men,  must  fall 
before  the  dagger  of  the  traitorous  assassin!    Let  the 
power  of  God  expurgate  such  a  soil,  if  need  be,  with 
the  dire  bolts  of  his  providential  vengeance!    Let  the 
power  of  God  kill  the  last  relic  of  treason,  and  drive 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  183 

the  accursed  monster  from  this  fair  land!  Shame, 
eternal  shame  on  the  men  who  have  the  least  sympathy 
with  this  awful  wickedness!  They  are  not  fit  to  in- 
habit a  country  they  so  grossly  dishonor. 

4.  Looking  now,  in  the  fourth  place,  at  the  nation  in 
its  present  status,  and  in  reference  to  the  duties  which 
now  press  upon  every  loyal  heart,  I  am  happy  to  say 
to  you  that,  though  the  President  is  dead,  the  nation 
lives.  The  blow  which,  in  being  aimed  at  him,  was 
meant  for  the  nation,  will  miss  its  mark.  We  have 
heard  in  these  latter  days  of  happy  feeling  not  a  few 
exhortations  that  should  conciliate  the  rebels  and  deal 
very  tenderly  with  them ;  that,  having  conquered  them, 
and  spent  millions  upon  millions  of  money  and  thou- 
sands vipon  thousands  of  lives  for  this  purpose,  we 
should  now  treat  the  conflict  as  a  mere  collision  of 
ideas,  and  be  careful  not  to  punish  the  leaders,  even 
Jefferson  Davis  himself,  should  they  fall  into  our 
power.  My  conciliation  embraces  the  following  pro- 
gramme : — First,  I  would  give  this  rebellion  war  to  the 
knife,  and  nothing  but  war,  till  the  last  vestige  of  it  is 
dead.  This  I  believe  the  short  and  only  safe  road  to 
final  peace.  I  would  then,  secondly,  extend  a  generous 
and  liberal  amnesty  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  upon 
the  condition  that  they  reorganize  their  State  govern- 
ments upon  the  basis  of  absolute  loyalty,  discarding 
traitors  and  abandoning  slavery,  holding  them  in  the 
meantime  subject  to  a  military  government  till  they 
resume  their  proper  relation  to  the  Union  upon  these 
terms,  I  would  then,  thirdly,  divide  the  responsible 
leaders  and  prime  authors  of  the  rebellion  into  three 
classes,  according  to  the  grade  of  their  guilt.  The  first 
of  which  and  the  smallest — of  which  Jefferson  Davis 


184        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

is  a  conspicuous  example — I  would  hang  by  the  neck 
till  they  are  dead !  The  second  class  of  which,  and  a 
larger  class,  I  would  expel  from  the  country,  and  send 
them  forth  as  fugitives  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
third  of  which,  and  a  still  larger  class,  I  would  dis- 
possess of  all  political  power,  denying  to  them  the 
right  to  vote,  and  making  them  ineligible  to  any  oflSce 
of  profit  or  trust  under  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  I  would  visit  these  penalties  upon  these  men 
for  the  enormous  crimes  which  they  have  committed. 
Justice  requires  it.  The  future  safety  of  the  nation 
demands  it.  Away  with  that  mawkish  sympathy  that 
ignores  justice  and  ruins  government.  It  is  alike 
stupid  and  cruel.  Such,  in  brief,  is  my  conception  of 
the  great  and  pressing  duties  which  belong  to  the 
hour,  and  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  which  we  may 
confidently  hope  to  save  our  country.  I  repeat,  our 
President  is  dead;  we  can  no  longer  be  availed  of  his 
counsels;  he  has  done  his  last  acts  and  said  his  last 
words;  and  now  what  we  have  to  do,  while  mourning 
the  sad  loss,  is  to  take  good  care  of  that  country  and 
those  institutions  to  which  he  gave  his  rare  powers. 
May  the  mantle  of  his  wisdom  fall  upon  his  official 
successor.  Andrew  Johnson  is  as  yet  an  untried  man 
in  this  sphere,  yet  I  have  strong  hopes  that  the  nation 
will  not  be  disappointed  in  either  his  capacity  or  in- 
tegrity. I  accept  him  as  the  President  of  these  United 
States.  I  intend  to  honor  and  obey  him  as  the  minister 
of  God,  and  do  what  I  can  to  support  the  government  of 
my  country  as  administered  by  him.  Let  us,  my  friends, 
lay  aside  all  partizan  animosities,  and  unite  together 
as  one  people  in  again  bringing  peace  and  prosperity 
to  this  land.     This,    I   am   persuaded,  would  be  the 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  185 

advice  of  our  President  dead  could  he  speak  to  us  from 
that  world  whither  his  spirit  had  gone. 

5.  Lifting  our  thoughts  finally  above  all  the  scenes 
of  earth,  and  contemplating  God  as  sitting  upon  the 
throne  of  eternal  providence,  permitting  and  ordering 
all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will,  I  advise 
you,  while  discharging  the  duties  of  the  present,  to 
trust  his  providence  for  the  future.  His  providence 
gave  us  our  President,  and  preserved  him  to  us  in  the 
days  of  our  greatest  darkness.  He  was  the  pupil  and 
the  creature  of  providence.  He  sat  at  the  feet  of 
providence,  and  sought  to  walk  in  its  ways.  This 
providence  has  permitted  what  seems  to  us  an  untimely 
fall.  I  cannot  explain  it — I  shall  not  try.  Yet  I  am 
comforted  with  the  thought  that  God  has  made  no 
mistake.  Under  his  providence  all  men  are  immortal 
till  their  work  is  done;  and  then  they  go  the  way  of 
all  the  earth  by  an  arrangement  which  in  heaven  is  no 
error,  however  painful  it  may  be  to  man.  Our  late 
President  had  finished  his  allotted  task,  and  well  and 
truly  has  he  done  so.  If  we,  his  survivors,  trust  provi- 
dence and  do  our  duty,  God  will  complete  this  work 
and  preserve  us  by  other  hands  than  those  we  had 
anticipated.  Hitherto  he  has  made  our  cause  his  care, 
imposing  upon  us  a  severe  discipline  for  our  good, 
postponing  our  final  triumph  till  the  ends  of  his  provi- 
dence should  be  realized;  and  now  he  has  permitted 
this  great  apparent  calamity  for  some  wise  reason, 
perhaps  now  perfectly  simple  to  the  enlarged  intelli- 
gence of  our  President  in  heaven.  On  earth  we  may 
never  see  this  reason;  yet  the  Lord  knows,  and  this 
should  suffice  for  us.  Let  us  bow  in  faith  and  weep  in 
hope.    God's  government  is  not  dead.  God's  providence 


186        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

is  not  dead.  These  will  prevail  when  empires  perish. 
No  fiendish  hand  can  strike  the  supremacy  of  God's 
throne.  No  assassin's  shot  or  traitor's  dagger  can 
suspend  his  control  in  human  affairs. 

God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 

His  wonders  to  perform; 

He  plants  his  footsteps  in  the  sea 

And  rides  upon  the  storm. 

Deep  in  unfathomable  mines 

Of  never-failing  skill, 

He  treasures  up  his  bright  designs, 

And  works  his  sovereign  will. 

Such,  my  friends,  are  the  remarks  which  I  have 
thought  fitting  to  the  occasion.  I  have  prepared  them 
amid  the  haste  and  excitement  of  this  soul-stirring 
hour.  I  have  had  no  time  to  revise  them,  or  recast  my 
words.  I  have  spoken  to  you  just  as  I  feel.  And  now 
I  ask  you,  one  and  all,  to  be  solemnly  reminded  of  the 
fact  that  you  are  mortal,  that  your  days  are  uncer- 
tain, that  soon  you  must  resign  all  the  trusts  of  earth, 
and  appear  before  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  I 
point  you  to  the  Bible  for  your  light,  and  for  your  sal- 
vation to  Him  whose  atoning  blood  cleanseth  from  all 
sin.  I  hope — from  what  I  have  heard  I  am  led  to 
believe — that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Christian^  a  man 
of  prayer;  and  hence  that  his  sudden  and  appalling 
death  has  been  to  him  sudden  glory.  We  leave  the 
fallen  with  God.  We  beseech  the  God  of  grace  to  make 
this  providence  a  blessing  to  our  hearts.  We  commend 
our  suffering  country  to  his  care  and  keeping.  We 
here  pledge  ourselves  to  each  other,  and  call  upon  high 
heaven  to  witness  the  covenant,  that  to  the  cause  for 
which  Abraham  Lincoln  lived,  and  in  which  he  died, 


SAMUEL  T.  SPEAR  187 

we  will  be  true  to  our  last  breath;  we  will  never 
desert  the  Stars  and  the  Stripes;  we  will  never  lay 
down  the  sword  till  the  supremacy  of  this  government 
is  vindicated;  we  will  never  pause  till  the  daring 
criminals  who  have  brought  this  evil  upon  the  land 
are  themselves  brought  to  merited  justice.  God  help- 
ing us,  we  will  crush  treason  and  suitably  punish 
traitors,  cost  what  it  may.  Just  now  we  are  in  no 
mood  to  be  trifled  with  by  that  senseless  philanthrop- 
ism,  that  shallow  and  almost  soulless  sentimentality, 
that  has  no  foundation  in  the  moral  nature  of  man, 
and  none  in  the  moral  government  of  God.  We  are  not 
dealing  with  wasps — perfectly  harmless  if  we  let  them 
alone — but  with  traitors,  with  the  enemies  of  public 
order,  with  men  who  have  virtually  raised  the  black 
flag  over  our  defenseless  and  helpless  soldiers  captured 
in  war,  a  fit  representative  of  whom  has  just  murdered 
our  President.  Such  are  the  men  who  are  at  the  head 
of  this  rebellion  and  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  and 
our  duty  in  the  premises  is  as  clear  as  light.  May  the 
God  of  heaven  prepare  us  for  the  work  and  crown  it 
with  his  blessing. 


XII 

REV.   ROBERT  LOWRY 

"And  the  victory  that  day  was  turned  into  mourning  unto 
all  the  people."— 2  Sam.  19.  2. 

You  do  not  expect  a  sermon  to-day.  I  have  no  sermon 
to  give  you.  The  air  is  laden  with  sorrow,  and  our 
hearts  are  plunged  together  in  one  common  grief.  The 
mind  refuses  to  think  of  anything  but  the  great  public 
calamity.  Our  dear,  good  President  is  dead!  We  are 
all  mourners  to-day.  It  is  not  for  me  to  comfort  you ; 
we  can  only  weep  together  in  our  overwhelming  family 
bereavement. 

We  have  looked  forward  to  this  day  as  the  Resurrec- 
tion Sunday  of  our  Lord.  We  had  adjusted  our  minds 
to  the  contemplation  of  the  event,  which  broke  the 
seals  of  the  dark  world,  and  opened  up  life  and  im- 
mortality to  the  sons  of  men.  But  the  smile  has  fled 
from  our  faces  to-day.  We  weep  as  at  a  burial,  though 
we  stand  by  the  empty  grave  of  our  Saviour.  There  is 
no  jubilant  music  from  the  organ  to-day.  There  is  no 
glad  song  of  victory  on  our  tongues  to-day.  No  bright 
flowers  of  gladness  decorate  our  church  to-day,  but, 
instead,  we  sob  forth  our  funereal  dirges.  We  cover 
our  faces  and  drop  our  bitterest  tears.  We  hang  these 
walls  with  the  deep  drapery  of  ^  woe.  We  droop  our 
beautiful  flag  over  the  pulpit,  and  gaze  on  its  craped 
folds  till  our  eyes  cannot  see  it  for  the  tears  that  blind 

188 


ROBERT  LOWRY  189 

them.  Why  does  the  sun  shine  to-day?  It  seems  to 
mock  us  with  its  brightness.  We  could  have  wished 
that  the  heavens  had  been  hung  in  black,  and  the 
clouds  had  wept  their  sympathy.  We  have  no  heart 
for  sunshine.  We  are  prostrate  in  our  profoundest 
grief. 

We  did  not  know  how  much  we  loved  him.  We  have 
talked  of  his  geniality,  his  tender-heartedness,  his 
patient  endurance,  his  broad  common  sense;  but  we 
thought  of  these  qualities  with  the  quiet  appreciation 
which  attends  familiarity.  We  only  learn  his  great 
worth  when  he  is  taken  from  us.  We  feel  now  how 
good  a  man  he  was,  how  great,  how  noble. 

Four  years  ago  the  people  called  him  to  preside  over 
a  country  drifting  toward  a  whirlpool.  It  was  a  time 
when  the  largest  experience,  the  clearest  statesman- 
ship, and  the  most  intelligent  tact  were  scarcely  ade- 
quate to  meet  the  appalling  demands  of  the  crisis.  He 
went  to  Washington,  taking  with  him  neither  polish, 
nor  statecraft,  nor  the  learning  of  the  schools;  but  he 
carried  there  a  lofty  patriotism,  a  sterling  honesty,  and 
a  full  American  manhood.  The  work  before  him  was 
not  one  of  courtly  genuflexion  in  the  reception  room. 
The  time  for  fresh  thoughts  and  manly  vigor  had  come. 
He  was  God's  gift  for  the  crisis.  We  did  not  all  think 
so  then.  The  surge  of  popular  excitement  sometimes 
swept  far  beyond  the  cool  standpoint  of  the  President. 
When  rebellion  seemed  to  be  strengthening  itself  in 
every  point,  and  even  asserting  superior  prowess  on 
the  battlefield,  there  were  not  wanting  those  who 
clamored  for  this  policy  and  that,  and  poured  the  vials 
of  their  hasty  anger  on  the  head  of  the  patient  Presi- 
dent.   But  no  menace  of  friend  or  foe  could  drive  him 


190        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

into  a  policy,  when  the  essential  elements  of  a  policy 
that  would  endure  had  uot  yet  germinated.  He  stood 
amid  the  conflict  of  passion  and  opinion,  as  one  who 
felt  that  the  issues  of  the  problem  were  with  him.  And 
with  this  temper  he  has  filled  the  years  of  his  adminis- 
tration. He  had  learned  that  ''he  that  ruleth  his  spirit 
is  better  than  he  that  taketh  a  city."  How  well  he  has 
performed  his  task,  a  mourning  nation  is  now  ready  to 
acknowledge. 

There  was  not  a  nerve  in  his  body  that  did  not  thrill 
with  love  for  the  Union.  He  lived  only  for  the  Union. 
If  a  commander  was  appointed  or  deposed,  it  was  that 
the  Union  might  the  better  be  defended.  If  a  change 
was  made  in  the  cabinet,  it  was  in  subserviency  to  the 
interests  of  the  Union.  If  the  just  demands  of  the  gov- 
ernment on  foreign  powers  were  held  in  abeyance,  the 
integrity  of  the  Union  was  the  all-controlling  motive. 
In  the  early  stages  of  the  rebellion  he  announced  that, 
with  slavery  or  without  slavery,  the  Union  must  be 
saved.  To  this  sole  end  he  gave  his  wearisome  days 
and  sleepless  nights.  For  this  consummation  he  issued 
his  proclamations,  or  withheld  his  signature  from  the 
laws  of  Congress.  While  it  was  possible  to  preserve 
the  unity  of  the  nation  without  invading  the  institu- 
tions of  the  States,  he  forbore  to  interfere  with  domes- 
tic laws.  When  it  was  evident  that  the  salvation  of  the 
Union  demanded  the  extirpation  of  human  bondage, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  write  the  immortal  paper  that 
gave  freedom  to  four  millions  of  enslaved  humanity. 

If  the  people  were  slow  to  give  him  all  their  con- 
fidence, they  learned  at  last  to  look  to  him  as  their 
worthily-trusted  chief.  It  is  seen  now  that  he  was  the 
appointed   instrument   of   God,   more   than   even   th« 


EGBERT  LOWRY  191 

choice  of  the  people.  When  this  conviction  fastened 
itself  on  the  popular  mind,  it  was  not  difficult  to  deter- 
mine that,  in  the  midst  of  an  unsettled  struggle,  we 
should  have  no  change  of  rulers.  There  were  those 
who  deemed  him  yet  to  be  below  the  level  of  the  crisis. 
But  the  popular  will  swept  them  away  like  chaff.  We 
said  that  the  man  who  had  conducted  us  through  four 
years  of  fearful  war,  and  made  himself  the  target  for 
traitorous  hatred,  should  carry  us  through  to  its  com- 
pletion. We  elected  him  for  a  second  term.  Not  even 
an  opponent  possessed  of  extraordinary  personal  ac- 
complishments could  divert  the  instinct  of  the  popular 
heart.  All  classes  accepted  the  decision  of  the  ballot. 
We  gave  ourselves  up  to  no  vehement  rejoicings,  but  we 
cherished  a  calm  satisfaction  in  the  result.  We  felt 
that  the  country  was  more  safe  in  the  hands  of  its  now 
tried  leader,  than  it  could  be  under  any  new  adminis- 
tration.   We  looked  hopefully  for  the  end. 

Nor  did  we  wait  long.  The  expression  of  the  popular 
will  gave  nerve  to  the  government,  the  army,  and  the 
people.  Faction  was  silenced,  and  loyalty  became  more 
clearly  defined.  Rebel  sympathizers  slunk  out  of  sight, 
and  military  combinations  closed  more  effectively  on 
the  focal  points  of  the  insurrection.  With  crushing 
weight  fell  the  final  blows.  City  after  city  was  taken ; 
fort  after  fort  captured ;  army  after  army  beaten ;  till 
the  whole  loyal  land  shouted  for  victory^  and  gave 
thanks  to  God  that  our  beloved  country  was  saved. 
How  gayly  our  flags  leaped  up  to  the  masthead !  How 
joyfully  our  guns  thundered  out  the  rejoicings  of  the 
people!  How  sympathetically  our  hearts  fluttered 
with  the  restored  banner  of  Sumter !  The  heavens  were 
growing  brighter  every  hour.     Charleston,  the  cradle 


192       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

of  the  rebellion,  was  a  desolate  ruin.  Richmond,  that 
became  its  coffin,  was  a  captured  city.  The  insurgent 
government  were  fleeing  before  our  arms.  The  rebel 
chief  had  become  a  fugitive  from  the  justice  that  pur- 
sued him.  The  bastard  rag  that  had  flaunted  its  in- 
solent folds  in  the  sight  of  Washington,  hid  itself  from 
the  face  of  the  national  banner.  The  rebel  hosts  that 
had  defended  the  strongholds  of  treason  for  four  years, 
were  conquered  and  shattered.  From  the  subdued 
capital  of  the  Slave  Confederacy,  the  President  sent 
dispatches  to  the  federal  city.  O,  how  glad  we  have 
been  over  the  victory!  What  blessing  God  has  been 
pouring  upon  us,  till  we  could  scarcely  find  room  to 
contain  it! 

And  now,  behold  these  emblems  of  woe!  Look  at 
these  strong  men  weeping!  The  nation  that  two  days 
ago  surged  with  joy,  now  heaves  with  unutterable  grief. 
The  flags  creep  sadly  down  to  half-mast.  There  is 
crape  on  our  banner  to-day,  and  crape  on  our  hearts. 
We  are  overwhelmed  in  our  great  affliction.  We  are 
unable  to  think  calmly,  or  speak  without  quivering 
lips.  We  are  in  a  paralysis  of  sorrow.  It  has  come  to 
us  in  a  moment.  It  has  smitten  us  when  we  were  most 
jubilant,  "The  victory  this  day  is  turned  into  mourn- 
ing, unto  all  the  people."  Would  that  it  were  only  a 
rebel  son  that  had  been  slain.  But  the  head  of  the 
nation  has  been  snatched  from  us.  The  friend  of  the 
people  has  fallen.  We  have  lost  our  father.  The  kind, 
the  good,  the  loved  Abraham  Lincoln  lies  dead  at  the 
capital.    Alas !  how  can  we  bear  a  grief  like  this ! 

Shall  I  speak  to  you  of  the  honored  dead?  His 
glorious  deeds  are  known  to  us  all.  He  needs  no 
eulogy  from  the  pulpit.    His  sublime  life  is  cherished 


ROBERT  LOWRY  193 

in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen.  His  death  of  martyr- 
dom will  cover  his  name  with  immortelles.  Shall  I 
tell  you  that  he  was  patriotic  f  You  know  that  every 
heartbeat  was  devotion  to  the  country.  He  lived  for 
his  country.  He  died  for  his  country.  Who  else  could 
have  done  her  so  much  good  in  the  terrible  ordeal  of 
civil  war?  Whose  death  could  have  brought  her  to 
such  bitter  tears,  as  his? 

Shall  I  tell  you  of  his  humanity  f  The  columns  of 
the  press  beam  with  the  records  of  his  tenderness  and 
sympathy.  How  pathetic  was  that  exhibition  of  his 
loving  heart  at  City  Point!  Six  thousand  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers  lay  in  the  hospitals.  The  President 
was  on  his  way  from  Richmond  to  Washington.  The 
pressure  of  public  business  could  not  deprive  him  of 
an  interview  with  these  brave  defenders  of  the  republic. 
He  moved  down  the  long  lines  of  prostrate  men — visit- 
ing each  cot — taking  the  sick  soldier  by  the  hand — 
laying  his  fingers  on  the  pale  brow — speaking  a  kind 
word  to  this  one  and  that — till  he  had  shed  sunshine  in 
every  invalid's  heart.  In  the  midst  of  this  philan- 
thropic work,  an  agent  of  the  Christian  Commission 
approached  him  with  a  request  that  he  would  give 
them  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  him  in  their  tent. 
"No,"  replied  the  warm-hearted  President,  "I  have  only 
so  many  hours  to  stay  at  City  Point,  and  all  that  time 
must  be  devoted  to  the  soldiers."  Dearer  to  him  were 
the  answering  smiles  of  those  wounded  soldiers,  than 
all  the  honors  which  oflScial  dignitaries  could  bestow 
upon  him.  How  feelingly  will  those  brave  men  now 
cherish  the  memory  of  that  visit,  with  its  tender  hand- 
pressure,  and  words  of  affectionate  sympathy ! 

Shall  I  tell  you  of  his  religious  character f     Thia, 


194        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

from  its  very  nature,  has  engaged  our  attention  less 
than  his  patriotism  and  his  humanity.  And  yet,  how 
deeply  are  we  concerned  in  it  this  morning.  We  long, 
as  Christians,  to  follow  him  beyond  the  river  into 
whose  waters  he  so  suddenly  entered.  For  him  there 
was  no  death-bed  preparation.  The  blessing  of  a  sick 
chamber,  granted  to  many  a  soul  for  reflection  and 
faith,  was  not  vouchsafed  to  him.  Can  we  look  with  a 
cheerful  gaze  through  the  death  mist  that  closed  so 
suddenly  around  him? 

I  venture  to  express  my  conviction  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  one  of  the  Lord's  people.  It  is  impossible 
to  penetrate  the  inner  life  of  a  man  in  his  position,  as 
we  can  that  of  a  private  and  familiar  citizen.  But 
there  are  at  our  command  a  few  important  elements, 
strengthening  a  conviction  that  he  had  "passed  from 
death  unto  life."  Our  lamented  President  is  known  to 
have  been  a  mail  of  prayer.  It  may  not  be  that  when, 
in  18G1,  he  uttered  his  last  request  in  Springfield,  "pray 
for  me,"  he  grasped  the  full  blessing  for  which  he 
asked.  But  never  did  Christians  pray  for  a  ruler  more 
sincerely  and  more  importunately,  than  for  our  over- 
burdened President  during  the  last  four  years.  And  if 
the  White  House  has  not  heretofore  been  regarded  as 
holding  intercourse  with  the  court  of  heaven,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  for  months  past  its  walls  have  looked  on  the 
bent  form  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  invoking  the  grace 
of  Almighty  God. 

A  clergyman  in  New  York,  having  business  with  the 
President,  sought  an  interview  early  in  the  morning. 
Being  detained  in  the  waiting-room  longer  than  seemed 
to  be  indispensable  at  that  time  of  day,  he  inquired  the 
reason   of   the   President's   non-appearance.     He  was 


ROBEPwT  LOWRY  195 

answered,  that  this  hour.was  employed  by  the  President 
in  the  reading  of  the  Scrii^tures  and  prayer,  and  no 
interruption  would  be  permitted  until  these  sacred 
exercises  had  closed. 

When  little  Willie  Lincoln  passed  from  earth,  the 
mind  of  the  bereaved  father  was  deeply  affected  by 
thoughts  of  death.  But  the  vortex  of  public  duties 
held  him  from  pursuing  the  serious  thoughts  to  which 
his  mind  had  been  directed.  But  when  he  stood  on 
the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  and  beheld  the  graves  of 
the  brave  men  who  had  gone  down  to  death  for  the 
principles  of  which  he  was  the  exponent,  such  a  sense 
of  the  presence  of  God  and  of  his  own  unworthiness 
took  possession  of  his  soul,  as  to  overwhelm  him. 
From  that  day  he  dated  his  entrance  into  a  new  life. 

I  am  told  that,  a  few  months  ago,  a  lady,  visiting  the 
Presidential  mansion,  was  invited  to  a  seat  in  the 
family  carriage.  In  the  course  of  the  ride,  the  conver- 
sation turned  on  the. subject  of  religion.  The  President 
was  deeply  interested,  and  begged  the  visitor  to  de- 
scribe, as  clearly  as  possible,  what  was  that  peculiar 
state  of  mind  in  which  one  might  know  himself  to  be  a 
Christian.  She  repeated  to  him  the  simple  story  of  the 
cross;  and  explained",  that  when  a  poor  sinner,  con- 
scious that  he  could  not  save  himself  looked  to  Jesus, 
and  saw  in  his  death  a  full  atonement  for  the  sinner's 
sins,  and  believed  that  Christ's  death  was  accepted  as 
a  substitute  for  the  sinner's  death,  he  felt  himself  to 
have  been  delivered  from  Divine  wrath,  and  to  be  "at 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  The 
President  replied,  in  a  tone  of  satisfaction,  ''That  is 
just  the  way  I  feel." 

Who  can  read  his  second  Inaugural,  and  fail  to  see 


106        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  evidences  of  a  Christian  spirit?  What  state  paper, 
in  all  our  official  literature,  ever  revealed  such  sense 
of  Divine  justice,  and  such  sublime  faith  in  God?  It 
reads  as  if  the  writer  had  been  wandering  over  the 
earthly  boundary,  and  drank  of  the  spirit  of  that  better 
land  of  which  so  soon  he  was  to  be  a  resident. 

And  now  I  come  to  meet  a  question  which  will  dis- 
turb every  Christian  mind.  The  President  was  shot  in 
the  theater.  We  would  have  had  it  otherwise.  Pulpits 
will  speak  of  it.  The  press  will  comment  on  it.  The 
people  in  the  streets  will  talk  about  it.  Let  us  look  at 
it  with  a  calm  judgment. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  President  went  to  the 
theater  because  he  loved  to  be  there.  He  was  not,  in 
the  common  acceptation  of  the  term,  a  theater-goer.  It 
is  known  that  he  went  with  great  reluctance.  He  was 
in  no  state  of  mind  to  enjoy  a  scene  like  that.  But  the 
newspapers  had  announced  that  the  President  and 
General  Grant  would  be  there  on  that  evening.  The 
people  thronged  the  house  to  do  honor  to  the  great  men 
who  had  saved  the  country.  General  Grant,  who  had 
no  time  to  waste  in  amusements,  left  Washington  in 
the  evening  train,  to  superintend  the  removal  of  his 
family  to  Philadelphia.  The  President  knew  that  the 
jjeople  would  be  disappointed,  if  they  saw  neither  of 
the  faces  that  they  delighted  to  honor.  Weary  as  he 
was,  he  decided  to  go.  He  went,  not  to  see  a  comedy, 
but  to  gratify  the  people.  If  he  had  a  weakness,  it  was 
that  he  might  contribute  to  the  joy  of  the  people.  For 
the  people  he  had  spent  four  toilsome  years  in  lofty 
self-abnegation.  For  the  people  he  gave  up  his  life  on 
the  night  of  that  fatal  Friday. 

There  is  another  consideration.    In  all  the  countries 


ROBERT  LOWRY  197 

of  Christendom,  the  rulers  are  expected  to  visit  the 
theater  as  an  act  of  state.  We  may  deplore  the  custom, 
but  it  is,  nevertheless,  universal.  It  is  an  observance 
that  stretches  back  through  long  generations.  There 
is  a  supposed  necessity  for  it.  It  is  only  there  that  the 
Executive  can  receive  the  formal  acclaims  of  all  classes 
of  citizens.  There  they  feel  free  to  give  him  the  tribute 
of  popular  plaudits.  They  cannot  so  recognize  him  at 
church,  nor  in  public  receptions,  nor  in  casual  appear- 
ances abroad.  The  President's  box,  like  the  reception 
room,  is  an  arrangement  of  state  policy.  It  is  an 
established  point  of  contact  between  the  chief  magis- 
trate and  the  people.  From  a  religious  standpoint,  we 
cannot  approve  of  it.  But  we  must  not  confound  the 
act  of  the  President,  prompted  by  high  considerations 
of  state,  with  the  visit  of  a  private  citizen,  moved  there- 
unto by  the  low  desire  of  a  mere  selfish  gratification. 

With  what  profound  awe  we  contemplate  this  mys- 
tery of  permissive  providence!  We  close  our  mouths 
before  the  mandate  of  the  Almighty — "Be  still,  and 
know  that  I  am  God."  We  cannot  understand  it. 
We  can  only  receive  it.  God  employs  his  instruments 
according  to  his  own  sovereign  purpose.  His  principle 
of  selection  confounds  all  our  philosophy.  He  creates 
— he  destroys.  If  Moses  was  the  best  man  to  form  a 
great  people  for  a  higher  nationality,  Joshua  was  a 
better  one  to  lead  them  into  the  promised  land.  God 
chose  Abraham  Lincoln  because  no  other  could  do  his 
work  so  well.  What  if  his  work  were  done,  and  other 
hands  were  needed  to  perfect  what  he  so  successfully 
begun?  We  have  seen  too  plainly  the  goodness  and 
wisdom  of  God  in  our  national  affairs,  to  doubt  that 
he  will  sanctify  to  us  this  awful  calamity.     We  have 


198        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

learned  to  acknowledge  God  in  triumph  and  in  defeat, 
as  never  before  in  our  history.  And  God  is  bringing 
us  closer  to  himself  in  this  severest  of  all  his  dealings. 
He  gave  us  the  best  of  Presidents.  He  has  taken  away 
our  prop,  that  we  might  all  the  more  trustfully  lean 
on  him.  That  he  will  cause  "the  wrath  of  man  to 
praise  him,"  who  can  question?  "He  hath  not  dealt  so 
with  any  nation"  as  with  ours.  In  this  unparalleled 
affliction  he  will  not  desert  us.  Let  us  look  for  the  good 
hand  of  our  God  in  this  calamitous  visitation.  The 
tender  heart  that  has  been  laid  low  by  violence,  may 
have  shrunk  from  the  stern  duties  of  the  coming  time. 
He  was  so  free  from  bitter  vindictiveness,  so  prone  to 
lenient  dealing  even  with  his  enemies,  that  even  the 
just  infliction  of  punishment  on  the  worst  of  traitors, 
might  have  been  too  hard  a  task  for  a  nature  so  gener- 
ous and  charitable.  The  good  he  has  done  will  embalm 
his  name  to  the  latest  generation.  Thank  God  that  he 
ever  blessed  us  with  Abraham  Lincoln ! 

And  who  is  this  new  instrument  of  God,  into  whose 
hands  thus  suddenly  and  fearfully  has  been  cast  the 
leadership  of  the  nation?  No  man  would  have  chosen 
him  for  President,  but  God  has  thrust  him  on  a  pros- 
trate, bewildered  people.  The  scene  of  the  inauguration 
day  filled  us  with  shame,  and  now  afifects  us  with  ap- 
prehension. But,  has  God  mistaken  his  instrument,  or 
been  foiled  in  his  purpose?  Already  we  hear  voices 
that  dispel  the  dark  foreboding.  General  Burnside, 
Senator  Foster,  Representative  Odell,  speak  words  in 
the  popular  ear  that  lift  up  the  new  President  from  the 
shadow  that  enveloped  him.  We  will  rally  around  the 
new  man  whom  God  has  given  to  us.  If  we  prayed  for 
President  Lincoln,  let  us  pray  all  the  more  for  Presi- 


KOBEKT  LOWRY  199 

dent  Johnson.  We  know  there  is  a  providence  in  all 
this,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  God  will  interpret  it 
to  us  in  his  own  good  time. 

Two  qualities  loom  before  us  in  the  character  of  our 
new  chief.  First,  he  is  patriotic.  In  the  dark  hour 
when  the  faithful  were  few,  he  loved  his  country  too 
much  to  love  his  section.  In  the  very  dawning  of  the 
insurrection,  he  stood  firm  in  his  place,  and  denounced 
the  arch  traitors  who  were  plotting  their  country's 
ruin.  He  has  been  tried  in  the  hottest  fires  of  perse- 
cution, and  betrays  no  alloy  in  the  gold  of  his  patri- 
otism. We  may  trust  him  as  possessing  the  full 
measure  of  devotion  which  the  warmest  patriot  could 
demand. 

Secondly,  he  is  radical.  We  live  in  times  when  child's 
play  is  criminal.  Andrew  Johnson  has  "understanding 
of  the  times."  He  has  measured  the  atrociousness  of 
rebellion.  He  has  sounded  the  wickedness  of  slavery. 
He  will  make  no  compromises  with  traitors.  He  will 
not  plane  down  treason  into  a  mere  difference  of 
opinion.  He  is  a  bold  man  to  meet  a  bold  evil.  Presi- 
dent Johnson  has  no  glove  on  his  hand.  President 
Johnson  has  no  velvet  in  his  mouth.  Treason,  to  him, 
is  the  worst  of  crimes,  and  the  traitor  will  struggle 
against  justice  in  vain. 

See  the  effect  on  the  people  of  this  dastard  blow! 
We  are  melted  down  into  unity.  Who  speaks  a  word 
against  Lincoln  now?  Who  stands  aloof  from  the 
government  now?  Who  dares  sympathize  with  traitors 
now?  We  have  rubbed  out  our  party  lines,  and  fly 
together  as  if  nothing  had  divided  us.  In  a  common 
fraternity  of  suffering^  we  weep  as  with  one  sorrow, 
and  burn  as  with  one  indignation.     The  government 


200        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

may  do  anything  now  against  treason,  and  the  people 
will  approve  the  righteous  deed. 

AVe  have  lost  all  sentiment  of  clemency.  Satan  over- 
leaped himself  when  he  lifted  the  deadly  weapon.  If 
we  indulged  mercy  to  rebels  before,  now  we  have  none. 
There  is  one  deep,  loud  cry  for  justice!  The  animus  of 
the  rebellion  has  betrayed  itself.  The  bullet  that  en- 
tered our  loved  President's  brain,  lodged  in  the  heart 
of  the  people.  It  rankles  there.  It  needed  the  assas- 
sin's foul  deed  to  nerve  us  to  the  punishment  of  traitors. 
I  speak  not  the  name  of  this  heaven-abandoned  wretch. 
I  call  him  The  Assassin.  He  has  lifted  us  to  a  new 
view  of  this  colossal  conspiracy.  We  see  the  unmiti- 
gated turpitude  of  the  huge  crime.  It  is  the  same 
spirit  that  buried  our  soldiers  at  Bull  Run  with  faces 
downward,  and  made  trinkets  of  their  bones — that 
starved  our  unhappy  prisoners  in  the  pens  of  Ander- 
sonville — that  butchered  our  men  in  cold  blood  at  Fort 
Pillow — that  devoted  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  Law- 
rence to  indiscriminate  massacre — that  froze  our 
veterans  to  death  on  Belle  Island — that  crowded  our 
officers  in  the  damp  dungeons  of  Richmond,  till  you 
could  gather  the  mold  from  their  beards  by  the  hand- 
ful! And  we  call  on  President  Johnson  to  close  his 
hard,  hammer  hand,  and  bring  it  down  with  its  heaviest 
blows,  till  he  shall  crush  in  the  brazen  front  of  this 
infernal  rebellion,  and  hurl  its  foul  carcass  from  the 
land  it  has  polluted ! 

This  land  is  not  large  enough  to  hold  the  leaders  of 
the  rebellion.  The  flag  they  have  sought  to  dishonor 
should  not  be  allowed  to  cover  them.  They  have  for- 
feited, a  thousand  times  over,  the  mercy  of  the  govern- 
ment they  assailed.    And  this  last  and  vilest  culmina- 


KOBERT  LOWRY  201 

tion  of  their  crimes  puts  them  beyond  the  possibility 
of  pardon.  Let  us  make  this  soil  red-hot  to  the  foot  of 
every  traitor.  Let  the  warm  breath  of  our  holy  indig- 
nation sweep  from  our  cities  every  rebel  sympathizer. 
Let  us  vow,  in  God's  house  to-day,  that  treason  shall 
be  destroyed,  trunk  and  branch,  root  and  rootlet,  till 
not  one  hand  be  left  to  give  the  sword  such  a  vintage 
of  blood  again.  Then  will  our  land  be  a  land  of  peace 
and  freedom.  Then  will  our  nation  be  the  joy  of  the 
whole  earth ! 


XIII 
REV.  ALBERT   S.  HUNT 

"The  wisdom  of  God  was  in  him  to  do  judgment." — 1  Kings 
3.  28. 

We  meet  in  tears.  The  darkness  and  the  grief  which 
have  made  us  faint  have  fallen  upon  myriads  besides 
"for  in  every  house  there  is  one  dead."  Never  since  the 
world  began  has  heaven  looked  down,  at  any  one  time, 
upon  so  many  mourning  assemblies  as  crowd  the  Chris- 
tian temples  of  this  land  to-day.  Why  is  it  so?  Is  not 
this  the  festive  day  when  believers  in  "Jesus  and  the 
resurrection"  should  adorn  their  altars  with  garlands, 
and  sing  joyful  anthems?  And  have  we  not  heard  too, 
since  we  last  met,  such  tidings  of  victory  over  an  armed 
foe  as  almost  never  before  cheered  the  hearts  of  a  loyal 
and  God-fearing  people  ?  All  true !  but  our  Easter  an- 
thems give  place  to  dirges,  and  our  "victories  are  turned 
into  mourning  unto  all  the  people"  to-day,  because 
Abraham  Lincoln  has  been  assassinated.  What  do  I 
say?  Strange,  sad  words!  Are  we  in  the  midst  of  a 
troubled  vision  ?  God  of  our  fathers,  have  mercy  upon 
us! 

Wb  mourn  the  death  of  one  of  the  most  com- 
manding PERSONAGES  OF  HISTORY.  His  life  has  been  a 
magnificent  success.  I  will  not  attempt,  by  words,  to 
prove  this  statement.  "If  you  seek  his  monument,  look 
about  you."    The  I^nion  is  saved ! 

202 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  203 

Where  now  shall  we  find  an  explanation  of  this 
TRIUMPHANT  SUCCESS?  ''The  wisdom  of  God  was  in 
him  to  do  judgment."  That  this  text  furnishes  the  only 
full  response  to  our  inquiry,  will  become  more  apparent 
if  we  seek  the  explanation  elsewhere. 

Is  it  to  be  found  in  the  essential  worth  of  his  char- 
acter f  It  is  too  early  to  attempt  a  finished  portraiture, 
or  even  a  full  outline,  but  a  glance  at  a  few  features 
which  most  attract  us  will  serve  the  purpose  of  our 
argument. 

He  had  a  clear,  strong  intellect.  This  was  manifest 
in  the  ease  with  which  he  grappled  with  great  public 
questions.  If  his  logical  processes  were  not  always 
conducted  in  obedience  to  the  rules  of  the  schools,  his 
conclusions  would  yet  silence  the  most  orderly  thinkers. 

The  same  clearness  was  always  evident  in  his  easy 
intercourse  with  others,  when  his  mind  was  unbent  and 
at  play. 

He  was  also  justly  distinguished  for  the  tenderness 
of  his  heart.  This  was  indicated,  not  only  in  his  care 
to  occasion  no  needless  suffering  in  the  discharge  of 
his  executive  duties^  but  also  in  numberless  words  and 
ways  which  were  unofficial.  You  remember  the  touch- 
ing letter  he  wrote  to  the  mother  in  Boston,  who  had 
lost  her  sons  in  the  cause  of  the  country.  His  address 
at  Gettysburg,  remarkable  as  it  is  for  the  grandeur  of 
its  thought,  is  even  more  so  for  the  tenderness  he 
breathed  into  it.  And  only  a  few  days  ago,  when  at 
City  Point,  on  his  way  from  Richmond  to  Washington, 
he  refused  multiplied  invitations  which  promised  ease 
and  entertainment,  because  "he  had  only  time,"  as  he 
said,  "to  go  through  the  hospital  and  speak  to  the  sick 
and  wounded  boys."    Thus  he  passed  from  one  cot  to 


204        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDKESSES 

another,  clasping  the  hands  of  such  as  had  them,  and 
pressing  the  foreheads  of  the  handless,  smiling  through 
his  tears  upon  all,  and  thanking  them  for  their  self- 
sacrificing  patriotism. 

He  was  a  man,  too,  of  more  than  ordinary  conscien- 
tiousness. Here  we  find  the  explanation  of  the  hesi- 
tancy which  appears,  at  times,  in  his  action.  A  legion 
of  politicians  might  beset  him  and  urge  him  to  effort, 
but  having  heard  them  all,  he  would  take  counsel  of 
his  conscience,  and  perhaps  still  remain  inactive.  He 
would  do  nothing  unless  he  could  see  clearly  what  it 
was  right  to  do.  Here,  also,  we  find  the  explanation 
of  his  undeviating  firmness,  when  once  he  had  become 
convinced  of  the  rectitude  of  his  measures. 

Thus  have  we  touched  the  salient  points  of  his  char- 
acter. The  study  has  indeed  been  superficial,  but  suffi- 
ciently thorough  to  convince  all  candid  inquirers  that 
we  must  look  elsewhere  for  a  full  explanation  of  his 
success.  We  have  discovered  elements  of  character 
which  exalt  him  to  a  place  among  the  truly  great,  and 
without  which  he  could  never  have  succeeded,  but  which 
must  be  largely  supplemented  before  we  are  furnished 
with  a  credible  solution  of  his  wonderful  mastery. 

But  again.  We  may  be  told  that  although  the  secret 
of  Abraham  Lincoln's  success  has  not  vet  been  dis- 
covered,  we  are  not  driven  to  the  explanation  suggested 
by  the  text  as  the  only  alternative,  since  there  is  an- 
other method  of  detecting  the  hiding  place  of  the  power 
of  imperial  men.  We  discover  that  all  such  personages 
are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  elements  they  have  to 
mold  and  control,  and  that  they  also  have  a  command- 
ing position  above  their  fellowmen,  in  consequence  of 
greatness  which  was  born  in  them — a  kind  of  genius 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  205 

which  is  beyond  the  reach  of  analysis.  They  know  all 
about  the  common  peoi)le,  and  yet  are  made  greater 
and  nobler  than  they,  by  towering  gifts. 

Shall  we  find  here  the  explanation  we  are  seeking? 
It  is  true  that  he  knew  all  about  the  materials  he  was 
called  to  mold  and  control.  Without  the  social  eleva- 
tion which  results  from  aristocratic  associations,  born 
in  a  humble  home  and  reared  with  the  common  people, 
he  thoroughly  understood  all  their  wants,  failings, 
foibles,  and  excellencies.  He  had,  too,  a  certain  native 
greatness  of  soul,  which  gave  him  a  commanding  posi- 
tion above  the  crowd.  He  was  of  them,  yet  not  of  them. 
He  had  a  strange  power  over  all  who  approached  him, 
which  did  not  find  its  spring  in  the  arts  of  statesman- 
ship, nor  in  familiarity  with  the  great  models  of  his- 
tory. His  soul  was  broad,  deep,  and  lofty.  He  had  a 
genius  for  command.  All  this  is  true  of  him,  and  if 
it  had  not  been  true  he  would  have  failed,  yet  it  does 
not  fully  solve  the  marvel  of  his  success.  Had  he  been 
called  to  preside  over  thirty  millions  of  people  during 
a  period  of  peace,  such  powers  would  surely  have  been 
no  more  than  equal  to  his  duty,  but  he  entered  upon  his 
work  at  the  opening  of  a  vast  civil  war,  whose  close 
was  coincident  with  the  close  of  his  career.  The  un- 
known quantities  of  the  problem  he  was  called  to  solve 
were  well-nigh  infinite  in  number,  and  the  common 
processes  of  elimination  were  too  slow  to  serve  the  de- 
mands of  the  work.  A  power  was  required  which  could 
arrive  at  results  with  electric  haste,  but  which  would 
neither  flash  nor  thunder  on  its  way.  Or,  to  use  an- 
other illustration,  his  work  has  often  been  as  delicate 
as  that  of  the  daguerreotypist,  whose  pictures  w^ould 
quickly  fade  if  he  did  not  gild  them,  but  who  applies 


206        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

his  gold  in  the  form  of  a  solution.  His  vast  abilities 
have  been  employed,  but  not  according  to  common 
methods.  Held,  as  it  were,  in  solution  by  heavenly 
wisdom,  they  have  been  poured  out  in  blessings  on  the 
land. 

Elihu  declared  to  Job  that  "great  men  are  not  always 
wise" ;  but  the  great  man  whose  loss  we  mourn  to-day 
was  one  of  whom  we  may  truly  say,  "The  wisdom  of 
God  was  in  him  to  do  judgment." 

Why  now  should  we  hesitate  to  accept  the  state- 
ment OP  the  text  as  the  true  explanation  of  his 
success?  Was  there  not  a  religiousness  in  his  wisdom 
which  cannot  be  accounted  natural?  His  conscien- 
tiousness, of  which  we  have  spoken,  was  perhaps  chiefly 
a  natural  endowment ;  but  he  was  more  than  conscien- 
tious. He  wished  to  obey  right,  not  only  because  it 
was  right,  but  because  he  saw  the  relation  of  all  that 
is  right  to  the  righteousness  of  God.  He  obeyed  con- 
science, not  simply  because  he  recognized  its  eminent 
authority,  but  because  he  felt  it  to  be  the  voice  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man.  "He  did  not  care  to  have  the  Lord 
on  his  side,  but  did  most  sincerely  desire  to  be  always 
found  on  the  Lord's  side."  All  this,  I  repeat,  was  not 
of  nature.  "The  wisdom  of  God  was  in  him."  Nor 
need  we  wonder  at  this,  if  we  believe  that  the  God  of 
Israel  is  our  Godj  and  that  there  is  power  in  prayer. 
It  is  evident  that  he  was  not  unwilling  to  be  directed 
by  the  Almighty,  for  when  he  left  his  home  in  Spring- 
field to  enter  upon  his  presidential  duty,  he  asked  the 
prayers  of  his  neighbors  for  his  success.  Now  consider 
what  multitudes  have  been  interceding  for  him  ever 
since  that  day !  Was  there  ever  a  man  for  whose  suc- 
cess so  many  earnest  prayers  were  offered?     If  God 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  207 

has  not  heard  these  prayers  our  faith  is  vain;  if  he 
has  heard  them,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
"wisdom  of  God"  came  to  be  in  him.  The  prayers 
of  millions  have  aided  materially  to  make  him  what 
he  was. 

It  is  well  worthy  of  our  thought,  too,  that  he  was  not 
only  the  gift  of  God  in  answer  to  prayer,  but  he  was 
two  gifts  in  one.  Four  years  ago,  the  ears  of  the 
Almighty  were  continually  filled  with  petitions  from 
two  classes  of  suppliants,  concerning  two  great  sub- 
jects which  we  now  perceive  were  only  one,  but  which 
then  seemed,  to  the  majority  even  of  the  intelligent  and 
good  among  us,  to  be  distinct.  On  the  one  hand,  we 
were  beseeching  God  to  interpose  for  us,  and  preserve 
the  Union  of  the  States ;  while  on  the  other,  there  were 
earnest  cries  and  tears  from  an  oppressed  race  dwell- 
ing within  our  borders,  who  had  long  been  pleading  for 
liberty,  and  were  moved  as  by  inspiration  to  a  new 
trust  that  the  time  of  their  deliverance  was  drawing 
near.  God  heard  us  all.  He  heard  us,  for  our  cause 
was  the  cause  of  order  and  of  law, — his  own  cause.  He 
heard  the  prayers  of  the  enslaved)  for  it  is  his  wont  to 
have  mercy  upon  such.  There  was  a  people  of  the 
African  race  in  the  olden  time,  oppressed  under  Per- 
sian rule,  who,  having  heard  of  Jehovah  through  the 
ministry  of  fugitive  Jews,  cried  unto  him,  and  "he  sent 
them  a  savior,  and  a  great  one,"  in  the  person  of  Alex- 
ander. And  now,  in  answer  to  the  cries  of  an  oppressed 
people  of  the  same  race,  he  sends  another  mighty  de- 
liverer in  the  person  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  one  who  was 
a  more  efficient  savior  for  them,  because  he  was  also  a 
gift  of  God  to  us,  in  answer  to  our  prayers ;  and  who,  as 
the   sequel    demonstrates,    has    achieved   far   greater 


208        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

things  for  ns  than  he  could  have  done  if  he  had  not 
been  the  great  emancipator.  We  can  never  sufficiently 
adore  the  Divine  goodness,  which  havS  not  only  liber- 
ated the  enslaved  and  preserved  the  Union  of  the 
States,  but  has  also  made  one  man  the  instrument  in 
the  accomplishment  of  both  these  stupendous  results. 
He  might  have  given  us  a  leader  made  after  the 
sternest  Jacksonian  model,  and  endowed  him  with  abil- 
ity to  save  the  Union  by  the  force  of  an  iron  will, 
without  paying  special  regard  to  the  question  of 
slavery.  Such  a  man  would  have  been  the  very  gift 
multitudes  thought  desirable.  Then  he  might  have 
raised  up  a  deliverer  for  the  enslaved  from  among  them- 
selves, who  would  have  inspired  his  race  for  the  work 
of  a  bloody  insurrection.  This  was  the  fearful  method 
by  which  many  of  us  believed  their  liberty  would  be 
secured. 

Had  God  thus  dealt  with  us,  how  entirely  different 
would  have  been  the  present  condition  of  all  concerned. 
True,  the  Union  would  have  been  preserved,  and  the 
oppressed  would  have  been  delivered  from  bondage; 
but  how  much  more  perplexing  for  us  would  have  been 
the  problem  of  reconstruction,  and  how  much  less  hope- 
ful would  have  been  the  future  of  the  emancipated 
race.  Then,  too,  we  should  have  been  without  the 
ennobling  consciousness  which  now  is  ours,  that  our 
blood  has  been  spilled  and  our  treasure  lavished,  not 
only  in  defense  of  the  Constitution,  but  also  in  the 
solution  of  a  vast  moral  question.  This  fact,  which 
passes  into  history,  is  one  of  that  class  of  grand  facts 
whose  grandeur  increases  with  the  growth  of  the  ages. 
It  is  like  a  mountain  whose  summit  is  covered  with 
perpetual  snow, — glorious  always,  but  most  glorious, 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  209 

not  when  we  are  standing  at  its  base,  but  when  we 
behold  it  towering  in  the  distance. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  God's  gift  to  us  all !  Nor  need 
we  wonder  that  he  served  us  all  so  well,  when  we  con- 
sider that  countless  prayers  were  offered  for  his  suc- 
cess to  the  Divine  Redeemer,  who  was  a  full  Saviour 
for  the  Jews  only  because  he  became  our  Saviour  also. 
The  one  gift  of  God  to  us  all — he  has  made  us  one. 
We  are  all  free!  Nor  should  this  excite  our  wonder 
when  we  consider  that  the  wisdom  of  that  Divine 
Emancipator  and  Harmonizer  was  in  him,  of  whom  the 
apostle  says,  "He  is  our  peace  who  hath  made  both 
one,  and  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition 
between  us." 

But  he  is  dead!  It  is  a  signal  fact  in  our  history, 
that  Adams  and  Jefferson,  two  men  who  had  occupied 
the  presidential  chair,  were  removed  by  death  on  the 
same  day,  and  this  day,  too,  was  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  the  nation's  independence;  but  the  period  ap- 
pointed of  God  for  the  removal  of  our  late  President 
was  not  less  remarkable.  Two  days  ago,  as  we  doubt 
not,  the  identical  old  banner  of  the  republic  which  was 
first  dishonored  by  armed  treason,  was  raised  over  the 
ruins  of  Fort  Sumter — a  token  to  all  the  world  that 
the  nation's  life  was  saved!  Its  savior's  work  was 
done!  He  was  assassinated  on  the  evening  of  that 
very  day.  Probably  he  was  not  conscious  for  an  instant 
after  the  infliction  of  the  fatal  wound,  but  his  spirit 
lingered  with  us  until  after  the  rays  of  one  rising  sun 
had  gilded  anew  the  dear  old  flag.  Then  it  was  a 
fitting  time  for  him  to  die,  for  his  fame  shall  be  like 
the  glory  of  the  sun  in  its  rising. 

We  cannot  discover  the  full  meaning  of  this  sad 


210        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

PROVIDENCE,  YET  IT  CLEARLY  CONVEYS  TO  US  AN  INVALU- 
ABLE   LESSON     CONCERNING    THE    STABILITY    OP    POPULAR 

GOVERNMENT.  A  DGw  aiid  niost  scvere  test  having  been 
applied,  the  structure  is  proved  to  be  as  solid  as  the 
granite  hills.  Once  our  enemies  told  us  we  were  not 
strong  enough  to  contend  successfully  with  a  foreign 
foe.  This  we  disproved  fifty  years  ago.  Then,  we  were 
told  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  conquer  a 
domestic  enemy.  After  a  protracted  period  of  the 
fiercest  conflict  the  world  ever  saw,  we  have  just  now 
entered  the  capital  of  the  traitors,  and  broken  their 
military  power.  Thus  again  the  ill-omened  prophets 
of  both  hemispheres  have  been  brought  to  confusion. 
There  was  yet  one  other  declaration  of  the  carping 
defamers  of  popular  government  to  be  proved  false. 
They  have  asserted  time  and  again,  that  a  military 
power  sufficiently  large  to  overcome  treason,  would 
never  submit  to  the  claims  of  the  constitution,  but 
would  become  a  law  unto  itself,  and  establish  a  des- 
potism upon  the  ruins  of  civil  authority.  We  did  not 
believe  this,  but  we  did  not  certainly  know  that  it  was 
false  until  this  awful  assassination  of  our  Chief  Magis- 
trate opened  the  way  for  a  demonstration  which  will 
silence  the  base  calumny  now  and  forever.  The  greatest 
captain  of  the  age,  and  the  idol  of  the  nation,  fresh 
from  the  field  of  his  grandest  triumph,  stands  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  people.  Has  a  single  tongue  lisped 
a  desire  to  exalt  him  to  a  throne  and  crown  him  as  the 
first  of  a  new  line  of  monarchs?  Not  one!  The  Con- 
stitution designates  another  as  our  chief  ruler.  It  is 
enough — the  people  hail  him !  You  remember  the  first 
expression  of  the  nation's  purpose  to  defend  the  flag, 
after  it  had  been  insulted  at  Charleston.    Nor  will  you 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  211 

forget  that  solemn  day  of  last  November,  when,  after 
years  of  the  severest  discipline,  the  people  declared 
anew,  with  the  silent  eloquence  of  the  ballot,  their 
undying  love  for  the  country.  Both  these  expressions 
of  the  popular  heart,  were  truly  sublime,  but  neither 
impresses  me  so  profoundly  as  this  steady  bearing  of 
the  nation  during  the  past  thirty  hours,  I  am  proud 
of  my  countrymen ! 

Perhaps,  toOj  this  calamity  was  needful  to  prepare 
the  people  for  the  stern  work  we  have  yet  to  do.  It 
would  seem  that  we  ought  to  have  learned  the  real 
temper  of  the  rebellion  before  now.  It  has  instigated 
the  most  fiendish  riot  known  in  human  history — has 
practiced  cruelties  upon  our  kindred,  taken  in  battle, 
in  comparison  with  which  the  deeds  of  the  old  Spanish 
inquisition  seem  merciful — has  conspired,  in  its  hellish 
hate,  to  bury  us  in  the  ashes  of  our  own  dwellings — 
and  still  we  were  talking  of  a  display  of  clemency  and 
of  magnanimity  toward  a  conquered  foe.  It  was 
needful  that  the  nation  should  be  brought  to  a  better 
mind ;  for  Congress,  which  has  the  constitutional  right 
to  declare  the  punishment  of  treason,  is  but  the  servant 
of  the  people.  The  healthful  laws  already  upon  our 
statute  books,  which  make  death  the  traitor's  reward, 
seemed  harsh  to  many.    Do  they  seem  so  now  ? 

Treason  has  taken  the  life  of  our  loved  and  honored 
President.  It  has  entered  the  sick  room  of  our  Secre- 
tary of  State,  and  inflicted  wounds  which  there  is  too 
much  reason  to  fear  will  prove  fatal;  and  we  must 
believe  that,  horrid  as  all  this  is,  it  is  only  part  of  a 
vast  and  skillfully  planned  conspiracy  to  overthrow 
the  entire  executive  power  of  the  government.  Let  us 
go  now  together  and  gaze  upon  the  form  of  our  honored 


212        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

dead.  Around  him  are  the  folds  of  the  flag  in  whose 
defense  myriads  have  fallen.  Not  one  of  all  the  host  of 
heroes  loved  the  dear  "stars  and  stripes"  with  a  truer 
love  than  that  which  inspired  the  breast  of  our  Chief 
Commander.  Treason  had  not  done  its  worst  until  it 
laid  him  low.  The  fiendish  deed  is  done!  Shall  we 
turn  now  and  open  the  arms  of  brotherly  tenderness  to 
monsters  of  iniquity  who  would  count  it  all  joy  to 
trample  his  lifeless  remains  beneath  their  feet?  They 
mock  us  who  ask  it!  Shall  traitors  be  welcomed  to 
our  fellowship?  Shall  we  longer  hug  a  sentimental 
theory  of  clemency?  No!  a  thousand  times  no!  We 
will  not  be  vindictive,  nor  revengeful,  but,  God  helping 
us,  we  will  be  just. 

Our  duty  is  stern  and  painful,  but  we  must  not  shrink 
from  its  performance.  Our  voices  may  be  feeble,  but  we 
will  raise  them  for  justice,  and  do  all  that  in  us  lies  to 
sustain  our  newly  inaugurated  President  in  the  faith- 
ful execution  of  the  laws.  At  least  we  will  demand 
that  the  leaders  of  this  rebellion  shall  suffer  the  ex- 
treme penalty  of  the  law  in  death.  This  is  duty.  We 
owe  it  to  ourselves,  to  coming  generations,  and  to  God. 

Let  us  go  now  to  our  homes,  and  to  our  closets. 
Now,  if  ever,  we  need  to  pray.  These  are  "times  that 
try  men's  souls."  Are  we  true  men?  Do  we  love  our 
country?  Do  we  love  humanity?  Do  we  love  Jesus? 
This  last  question  was  proposed,  not  long  ago,  to  our 
departed  President.  He  replied  with  tears,  "When  I 
left  my  home  in  Springfield  to  come  to  Washington, 
though  I  felt  my  responsibility  and  asked  my  neighbors 
to  pray  for  me,  I  was  not  a  Christian.  When  my  dear 
boy,  Willie,  was  taken  from  me,  I  still  was  not  a 
Christian,  but  when  I  stood  on  the  field  of  Gettysburg 


ALBERT  S.  HUNT  213 

and  looked  upon  the  graves  of  its  heroes,  I  gave  myself 
to  God,  and  now  I  can  say  that  I  do  love  Jesus." 

Great  Emancipator!  The  whole  earth  is  filled  with 
thy  fame,  and  millions  will  mourn  at  thy  tomb,  yet 
thou  art  our  brother  in  the  fellowship  of  Jesus  ? 

In  Jesus  sleep! 


XIV 
REV.  HENRY  B.   SMITH,  D.D. 

"I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else,  there  is  no  God  be- 
sides me:  I  girded  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me." — 
IsA.  45.  5. 

We  are  apt  to  believe  that  man  makes  history.  We 
look  at  the  outside  of  events,  and  see  not  the  secret 
springs  that  move  and  guide  their  progress.  We  judge 
them  as  they  affect  our  transient  feelings,  interests,  or 
plans.  We  measure  them  as  they  appear  in  time,  and 
forget  the  past  eternity  in  which  they  were  all  deter- 
mined, and  the  future  eternity  in  which  they  will  all 
be  interpreted. 

But  there  is  one  who  seeth  the  end  from  the  begin- 
ning. There  is  a  God  who  hideth  himself,  and  only 
now  and  then  revealeth  himself.  He  alone  fully  knows 
what  all  things  are  and  mean.  He  setteth  up  one,  and 
putteth  down  another ;  and  none  can  stay  his  hand,  or 
say  unto  him,  What  doest  thou?  The  lot  is  cast  unto 
the  lap,  but  the  whole  disposing  thereof  is  of  the  Lord. 
In  his  hand  is  the  soul  of  every  living  thing,  and  the 
breath  of  all  mankind.  At  one  time  he  setteth  every 
man's  sword  against  his  fellow,  even  throughout  all 
the  host  (Judges  7.  22)  ;  at  another  time  he  leads  us  to 
say.  Thou  Lord  wilt  ordain  peace  for  us ;  for  thou  also 
hast  wrought  all  our  works  in  us.     So  that  in  self- 

214 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  215 

renunciation  we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge,  that 
now,  O  Lord,  thou  art  our  Father ;  we  are  the  clay,  and 
thou  our  potter ;  and  we  all  are  the  work  of  thy  hands. 
The  king's  heart  is  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord;  as  the 
rivers  of  water  he  turneth  it  whithersoever  he  will.  In 
our  text  he  says  of  Cyrus,  as  may  be  said  of  all  great 
rulers  guided  by  his  providence  in  ways  they  knew 
not:  "I  girded  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me; 
that  they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and 
from  the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  me.  I  am  the 
Lord,  and  there  is  none  else." 

And  there  are  times  in  every  individual,  and  in  every 
national  history,  when  these  majestic  and  awe-inspir- 
ing truths  underlying  all  events  and  all  religion,  are 
brought  so  distinctly  home  to  every  mind  and  heart, 
that  they  could  not  be  made  more  impressive  if  written 
in  lines  of  light  upon  the  canopy  of  heaven.  There  are 
times  when  we  must  flee  to  the  refuge  of  God's  provi- 
dence, if  we  would  avoid  the  blindness  of  chance,  or 
the  despair  of  fatalism;  for  between  these  three,  law- 
less chance,  pitiless  fate,  or  Divine  providence,  we 
must  all  at  last  choose  in  estimating  the  events  of  time. 
In  the  great  crises  and  junctures  of  history,  in  its 
staggering  vicissitudes,  when  viewing  the  hecatombs 
sacrificed  upon  fields  of  carnage,  when  bowed  down  by 
the  stroke  of  speechless  private  woe,  or  mute  with 
horror  before  appalling  crime  committed  against  the 
embodied  majesty  of  the  State,  at  the  moment  when  a 
nation's  destiny  seems  trembling  in  the  balance — how 
deeply,  how  solemnly  is  the  conviction  forced  upon  us, 
that  if  there  be  any  comfort,  any  refuge,  it  is  only 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Divine  wings;  it  is  only  in 
the  belief,  that  He  who  ruleth  in  the  heavens  ruleth 


216        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

also  upon  the  earth,  and  that  the  wrath  of  man  shall 
praise  him.  But  as  for  jou,  said  Joseph  to  his  brethren, 
ye  thought  evil  against  me;  but  God  meant  it  unto 
good,  to  bring  to  pass  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much 
people  alive. 

And  if  ever  a  people  were  called  upon,  by  an  unparal- 
leled concurrence  and  combination  of  circumstances, 
to  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  history,  the  hand  of 
him  who  both  forms  the  light  and  creates  darkness, 
who  maketh  peace  and  createth  evil,  it  is  surely  this 
American  people  under  the  present  conjuncture  of 
events,  some  of  which  have  so  recently  filled  us  with 
thankful  exultation,  while  others  have  plunged  us  in 
the  depths  of  national  grief,  mingled  with  awe,  as  if 
the  very  contradictions  of  destiny  were  at  the  same 
instant  appointed  to  be  our  lot.  An  all-wise  and 
inscrutable  Providence  has  been  guiding  us  in  ways  we 
knew  not  of;  girding  us  for  a  work  which  no  man  could 
foresee,  or  which,  if  foreseen,  no  man  would  have 
dared  to  attempt ;  enabling  us,  with  faith  and  patience 
and  sacrifice,  to  pass  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
greatest  civil  war  in  history,  unexampled  in  its  inten- 
sity, tenacity,  resources,  and  cost  both  of  treasures  and 
men,  until  we  had  just  come  to  see,  as  from  the  summit 
of  another  Pisgah,  the  promised  land  stretched  out, 
inviting  us  to  enter  in  and  make  of  it  a  goodly  land  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  And  then,  just  at  the 
moment  when  all  hearts  were  jubilant  with  the  hope 
of  a  quick-coming  peace;  when  the  great  rebellion  was 
staggering  and  crumbling  down  under  the  quick  and 
sharp  strokes  by  which  alone  it  could  be  felled  to  the 
earth;  when  the  nation  was  awaiting  its  jubilee,  and 
the  very  air  was  ringing  m  ith  the  glad  acclaims  of 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  217 

myriad  voices  of  the  freemen  and  the  freed ;  and  when 
many,  too,  in  the  fullness  of  their  too  exuberant  joy, 
had  begun  to  forget  justice  to  the  wrong-doers,  and 
were  speaking  of  an  almost  total  amnesty  and  for- 
giveness ;  then  the  providence  of  God  startled  us  again 
with  a  lesson  which  can  never  be  forgotten,  and,  by  the 
foulest  crime  of  modern  history,  brought  us  once  more 
face  to  face,  in  the  most  awful  form  imagination  can 
conceive,  with  that  gigantic  sin  which  has  brought  all 
these  woes  upon  us.  As  the  great  leader  of  the  Israel- 
ites came  only  to  the  verge  of  the  land  of  promise,  and 
was  not  permitted  to  enter  in,  so  the  recognized  and 
chosen  leader  of  our  republic  was  not  allowed  to  share 
the  full  fruition  of  all  he  labored  for  with  such  sleep- 
less watch  and  paternal  care.  An  execrable  assassin 
has  sent  him  to  his  grave  amid  lamentation  and  wail- 
ing. A  people  stricken  by  the  mighty  hand  of  God, 
bowing  low  in  the  dust,  can  only  say:  I  am  dumb,  I 
open  not  my  mouth,  because  thou  didst  it. 

And  thus  is  the  providence  of  God  teaching  us  the 
highest  lesson  of  trusty  as  well  as  the  constant  duty  of 
submission.  Some  things  in  this  providence  are  so 
open  and  legible,  that  only  an  atheist  can  be  blind  to 
them ;  others  are  so  mysterious,  that  only  God  himself 
can  interpret  them  unto  us.  How  plainly,  for  ex- 
ample, during  these  four  years  of  embittered  strife  and 
untold  calamities,  he  has  taught  us  the  inmost  mean- 
ing of  this  war  as  a  punishment  for  our  national  sins, 
and  as  involving  the  highest  moral  aims  and  issues. 
Who  now  doubts  that  the  sin  of  slavery  was  in  part  to 
be  atoned  for  by  our  sufferings  and  blood?  that  a  God 
of  justice  has  been  vindicating  the  rights  of  the  op- 
pressed? and  that  in  this  he  has  been  true  and  righteous 


218        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

altogether?  Who  now  can  doubt  that  the  war  has 
been  so  desperate  and  prolonged,  in  part  that  its  great 
moral  issue  might  be  made  up,  and  that  its  ethical 
lessons  might  be  imprinted  as  with  the  point  of  a 
diamond  as  in  lines  of  fire,  upon  the  nation's  conscience 
and  heart?  As  our  late  President,  in  his  last  Inaug- 
ural, so  solemnly  said : — "If  we  shall  suppose  American 
slavery  one  of  those  offenses  which  in  the  providence 
of  God  must  needs  comej  but  which,  having  continued 
through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible 
war,  as  was  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  we 
shall  not  discern  that  there  is  any  departure  from  those 
Divine  attributes  which  believers  in  the  living  God  al- 
ways ascribe  to  him."  And  who  can  now  doubt  that 
the  great  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  the  turning-point  in  the  strife,  the  deci- 
sion on  which  all  was  hanging;  that  it  gave  to  the 
North  its  moral  supremacy,  while  it  added  two  hun- 
dred thousand  ardent  patriots  to  our  armies;  that  it 
took  from  the  rebellion  its  last  prop,  and  from  foreign 
powers  all  possibility  of  intervention  against  the  re- 
public? And  what  a  wonder-working  providence  ap- 
pears in  all  the  knots  and  stadia  of  our  slow  yet  ever 
growing  success:  in  the  unexampled  supply  of  armed 
men  to  meet  each  new  emergency ;  in  the  stimulus  given 
to  labor,  and  the  increase  of  our  resources  from  month 
to  month,  from  year  to  year ;  in  the  decrease  of  poverty 
and  crime  through  all  the  North,  and  in  its  never-failing 
crops;  in  the  moral  training  of  our  people,  making 
them  willing  to  endure  hardships  and  to  give  up  what 
was  best  and  dearest  to  them  for  the  sake  of  the  good 
cause;  in  the  openhanded  devotion  with  which   the 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  219 

sicknesses  and  wounds  of  our  suffering  and  dying 
soldiers  have  been  ministered  to  in  the  hospital  and 
on  the  field  of  battle  by  an  army  of  self-denying  men 
and  women  all  through  the  land,  spreading  the  broad 
mantle  of  charity  over  the  horrors  and  carnage  of  war ; 
in  reviving  and  deepening  the  love  of  the  Union  and  its 
glorious  flag,  and  identifying  the  cause  of  the  nation 
with  the  cause  of  human  freedom ;  in  the  fact  that  our 
very  defeats  as  well  as  in  our  successes  have  subserved 
the  o'ermastering  end;  in  our  successive  changes  of 
commanders  until  we  put  the  right  men  in  the  right 
places,  and  the  foremost  captain  in  the  foremost  place 
of  all,  giving  concentration  and  unity  to  our  scattered 
hosts;  in  guarding  the  land  against  latent  conspiracy 
and  sedition  at  the  North,  as  well  as  against  open 
treason  and  rebellion  at  the  South;  in  carrying  us 
safely  through  the  most  costly  war  ever  waged,  and 
enabling  us,  as  a  people,  to  shoulder  and  carry  the 
staggering  burden  of  our  national  debt,  without  a 
sensible  diminution  of  the  permanent  capital  of  the 
country;  and,  above  all  this,  in  that  ever-deepening 
trust  in  God's  guidance  and  recognition  of  his  author- 
ity, which  have  pervaded  the  very  heart  of  this  people 
as  never  before,  imparting  the  assured  confidence  that 
their  deeds  and  sacrifices  were  furthering  the  highest 
temporal  ends  of  Divine  justice,  wisdom  and  love.  In 
all  these  things  the  leadings  of  Divine  Providence  have 
been  so  manifold  and  conspicuous,  that  even  the 
thoughtless  have  been  led  to  join  in  the  adoration : 
"The  Lord  he  is  God,  and  beside  him  there  is  none 
else."  Nor  is  this  providence  less  marked,  had  we  time 
to  trace  it,  in  the  course  of  affairs  in  respect  to  the 
revolted  States,  revealing  by  a  sure  process  the  inmost 


220        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

nature  of  a  rebellion,  formed  and  impelled  in  the  in- 
terests of  a  slave-holding  oligarchy.  It  was  perjured 
in  its  very  beginning,  and  reckless  of  truth  and  law, 
imperious,  denunciatory  and  violent,  acting  on  the 
principle  that  might  makes  right;  it  squandered  lives 
and  property  in  reckless  disregard  of  all  interests  but 
those  of  the  dominant  class,  and  carried  on  warfare 
with  such  barbarities  toward  our  wounded  and  im- 
prisoned soldiers  as  no  modern  civilized  nation  has 
ever  known;  and  it  has  reaped  the  reward  of  these 
foul  crimes  in  the  impoverishment  of  States,  in  the 
destruction  of  a  large  majority  of  their  white  male 
population  in  the  very  prime  of  manhood,  and  in  bring- 
ing mourning  and  desolation  into  a  million  families 
all  over  our  wide  republic.  Fearful  has  already  been 
their  punishment;  but  its  full  measure  no  human 
tongue  can  tell.  This  rebellion  will  live  in  all  history 
as  one  of  the  most  awful  of  national  crimes,  followed 
by  a  no  less  signal  retribution,  illustrating  the  severity 
of  the  Divine  judgments.  When  God's  judgments  are 
in  the  earth,  the  inhabitants  will  learn  righteousness. 

And  now  to  these  examples  of  Divine  Providence  in 
our  national  affairs,  has  been  added  yet  another,  in 
some  respects  the  most  affecting,  and  certainly  the  most 
unexpected  of  all,  coming  without  warning,  like  the 
stroke  of  a  thunderbolt  from  the  clear  sky,  and  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  land  was  rejoicing  in  the  plen- 
itude of  its  victories.  God  has  turned  our  joy  into 
mourning,  and  the  wail  of  grief  chokes  the  utterance 
of  the  song  of  triumjih. 

A  crime  has  been  committed,  unparalleled  in  the 
annals  of  modern  history.  The  chosen  head  of  our 
nation  has  fallen  by  the  frenzy  of  an  assassin.     The 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  221 

land  mourns  for  its  chief  with  such  unanimity  of 
sorrow  as  to  show  that  republics  are  not  ungrateful. 
Never  was  a  king  borne  to  his  burial  with  such  regal 
honors.  On  Wednesday  last,  through  all  the  land  from 
Maine  to  California,  by  all  communions,  in  every 
church,  funeral  services  were  held  with  solemn  rites 
and  unfeigned  grief.  Almost  every  house,  almost  every 
person,  bore  some  badge  of  mourning,  A  nation  bowed 
before  its  God,  stricken  and  sorrowing;  its  speech  was 
low  out  of  the  dust.  And  so  will  it  continue  while  the 
sacred  remains  of  him  we  loved  are  borne  in  solemn 
pomp,  with  all  the  pageantry  of  woe,  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles,  through  many  of  the  chief  cities  of  our 
country,  until  they  are  brought  to  his  distant  home  in 
Springfield,  which  he  has  not  revisited  since  he  there 
bade  his  fellow  citizens  farewell  four  years  ago,  with 
the  affecting  words :  "I  know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see 
you  again.  A  duty  devolves  upon  me  which  is,  per- 
haps, greater  than  that  which  has  devolved  upon  any 
other  man  since  the  days  of  Washington.  He  never 
would  have  succeeded  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine 
Providence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I  feel 
that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  Divine  aid 
which  sustained  him,  and  in  the  same  Almighty  Being 
I  place  my  reliance  for  support;  and  I  hope  you,  my 
friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  Divine 
assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with 
which  success  is  certain.  Again  I  bid  you  all  an  afifec- 
tionate  farewell."  These  simple,  trustful  words  be- 
came at  once  dear  to  us;  now  they  are  embalmed  in 
our  memory  forever,  and  every  generation  of  coming 
time  shall  read  them  with  tears.  We  now  know  that 
they  came  from  the  heart  of  a  martyr.    And  as  here, 


222        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

so  through  all  time,  the  names  of  Lincoln  and  Wash- 
ington will  be  linked  in  the  nation's  memory,  and  em- 
balmed in  the  nation's  heart.  Different  as  they  were 
in  their  training  and  character,  they  were  both  equally 
the  vessels  of  Omnipotence;  God  chose  them  to  do  an 
unequaled  work,  not  only  for  this  land,  but  also  for 
mankind. 

The  death  of  the  humblest  man  by  malice  and  vio- 
lence arouses  deep  indignation,  and  an  instant  resent- 
ment demands  the  punishment  of  the  murderer,  or  he 
that  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
shed.  The  assassination  of  the  beloved  ruler  of  a 
mighty  nation  in  the  very  crisis  of  a  nation's  fate,  at 
first  strikes  all  men  dumb  with  consternation  at  the 
atrocity  of  the  deed;  and  next  demands  that  justice 
be  executed,  with  a  voice  so  clear  and  irresistible  that 
all  fine  spun  sentimentalism  about  the  wrong  of  capital 
punishment  is  consumed  in  the  blaze  of  a  righteous 
wrath.  It  is  not  the  language  of  revenge,  but  of  justice. 

This  awful  deed  will  take  its  place  among  the  great 
crimes  of  history,  and  stand  out  with  its  startling 
lessons  more  and  more  distinctly  as  time  recedes.  No 
similar  crime  has  been  freighted  with  more  momentous 
issues.  There  have  not  been  many  terrible  assassina- 
tions of  great  rulers  in  the  zenith  of  their  power: 
Julius  Cassar,  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  William 
the  Silent,  Abraham  Lincoln.  And  the  name  of  Booth 
will  go  down  in  history,  not  with  that  of  Brutus,  who 
struck  for  the  cause  of  the  republic,  but  with  that  of 
Ravaillac,  impelled  by  fanaticism,  and  of  Gerhard 
Balthasar,  inflamed  by  the  rancor  of  a  persecuting 
church,  which  afterwards  canonized  him.  Even  these 
might  plead  that  they  acted  in  behalf  of  a  cause  which 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  223 

had  once  inspired  the  faith  of  martyrs,  and  done  some 
service  to  humanity.  But  the  murderer  of  our  Presi- 
dent seems  to  have  been  urged  on  by  a  senseless  hatred, 
which  was  born  of  the  worst  passions,  allied  with  the 
most  desperate  of  causes,  working  for  the  triumph  of 
despotism  and  barbarism.  No  man  was  ever  murdered 
so  wantonly,  with  such  insanity  of  villainy,  and  no 
one's  death  was  ever  so  fatal  to  those  that  brought  it 
about.  At  the  very  time  the  murderer's  bullet  pierced 
him,  he  was  anxiously  meditating  the  largest  amnesty 
for  the  foes  of  our  republic,  and  who  were  his  enemies 
only  because  he  was  the  nation's  chosen  ruler.  He  was 
then  standing  between  them  and  justice.  Words  of 
pardon  for  his  enemies  were  upon  his  dying  lips.  And 
what  a  contrast  between  the  victim  and  the  assassin — 
representing  in  some  sort  the  contesting  principles  that 
have  been  at  work  in  this  war.  The  one  was  simple, 
guileless,  frank,  truthful,  just,  ruling  in  the  fear  of 
God:  the  other  was  crafty,  theatrical,  of  external 
polish,  yet  implacable,  wedded  to  a  caste,  unscru- 
pulous, boastful,  defiant  of  God  and  man,  hating  with 
a  bitter  hate,  because  he  hated  the  light.  Alas!  that 
such  a  victim  was  needed  for  the  good  cause!  Alas! 
that  any  man  born  of  a  woman,  who  had  ever  heard  a 
mother's  voice  or  known  aught  of  human  love,  could 
have  been  left  to  commit  so  foul  a  deed ! 

Beyond  the  infinite  and  boundless  reach 
Of  mercy,  if  thou  didst  this  deed  of  death. 

And  he,  our  Presidentj 

Hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued,  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off. 


224        LINCOLN  MEMOEIAL  ADDRESSES 

This  crime,  we  say,  stands  out  conspicuous,  and  full 
of  instruction,  whether  we  consider  its  source,  its  cir- 
cumstances, its  victim,  or  its  probable  influence. 

What  was  its  real  and  proper  instigation?  This  is 
not  to  be  sought  alone  or  chiefly  is  the  personal  char- 
acter and  history  of  the  murderer,  but  in  the  influences, 
which  determined  his  fateful  deed.  No  matter  whether 
there  was  an  avowed  and  widespread  conspiracy  or 
not,  his  murder  was  the  fruit  of  a  conspiracy.  It  is  the 
rebellion  itself,  taking  the  form  of  an  incarnate  fiend ; 
it  is  the  rebellion  concentrated  and  impersonated,  all 
its  principles  and  motives  gathered  together  in  one 
fatal  stroke.  It  is  secession,  treason,  perjury,  cruelty, 
fraud,  and  bitter  hatred,  getting  hold  of  a  man  as  with 
a  demoniacal  possession,  and  transforming  him  into 
a  fiend.  It  is  the  despair  of  a  desperate  and  lost  cause 
in  its  last  blind  and  infuriate  assault  upon  a  righteous, 
civilized  and  benevolent  government.  It  is  the  very 
spirit  of  slavery,  its  pride  of  caste,  its  impatience  of 
restraint,  its  ungovernable  passions,  its  rooted  selfish- 
ness, its  malignity  and  barbarism  when  fully  roused, 
its  recklessness  of  all  obligations  human  or  Divine; 
and,  we  may  add,  its  frantic  and  impotent  fury  against 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall — in  its  last  expiring  act, 
intended  to  show  us,  so  that  none  shall  ever  forget  it, 
against  what  we  have  been  contending,  and  that  our 
costly  sacrifices  have  been  well  offered  if  this  foul 
spirit  can  be  forever  ejected  from  the  body  politic. 

The  circumstances  of  this  crime  will  also  ever  give 
it  a  marked  place  in  history.  In  different  forms  it 
seems  to  have  been  long  premeditated;  and  at  last  it 
was  astutely  planned,  with  a  wide  foresight  of  con- 
tingencies.   It  was  a  most  foul  and  deliberate  iuurder, 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  22.1 

executed  in  more  than  the  light  and  crowd  of  a  common 
noonday  even  in  a  i>opulous  city;  and  yet  the  well- 
known  assassin  by  his  very  daring  managed  to  escape, 
and  has  since  as  yet  been  nntracked.  In  an  instant, 
unwarned,  it  struck  down  the  head  of  the  republic,  all 
unarmed,  all  unsuspicious;  on  the  evening  of  Good 
Friday,  when  a  still  more  awful  sin  was  commemo- 
rated ;  at  the  close  of  a  day  when  our  nation's  flag  had 
again  been  planted  with  joyful  shouts  upon  the  walls 
of  Fort  Sumter,  where  first  it  was  trailed  in  the  dust 
by  our  foes.  On  this  very  day  Mr,  Lincoln,  it  is  said, 
had  been  expressing  such  a  feeling  of  relief  from  ex- 
hausting cares  as  he  had  not  known  for  years.  Many 
of  his  highest  hopes  had  been  fulfilled.  Through  four 
long  years  he  had  watched  and  prayed;  and  the  rays 
of  the  coming  morning  had  just  struck  upon  his  vision, 
when  the  light  of  his  eyes  was  at  once  and  forever 
quenched.  Victory  was  everywhere  crowning  our  arms 
in  that  last  masterly  campaign,  more  complete  in  its 
plans  and  execution  than  any  campaign  since  the  wars 
of  the  first  Napoleon.  The  end  for  which  our  careworn 
President  had  been  toiling  seemed  to  be  in  his  very 
grasp.  He  was  enthroned  as  never  before  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen.  No  man  in  this  world  held  a  more 
lofty  or  a  more  responsible  position ;  none  seemed  so 
needful  for  the  welfare  of  the  state.  In  the  noontide 
of  his  career  he  was  struck  down  suddenly;  and  after 
he  fell  no  word  passed  his  lips,  until  he  slowly  breathed 
his  last  amid  the  grief  and  silent  awe  of  a  whole  nation. 
What  an  impressive  lesson  of  the  vanity  of  all  human 
hopes!  of  the  frailty  of  all  human  dependence!  It 
seems  to  say  to  every  one  in  this  land : — Our  days  are 
swifter  than  a  post;  they  flee  away.    They  are  passed 


220        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

away  as  the  swift  ships;  as  the  eagle  that  hasteth  to 
his  prey.  We  know  not  what  a  day  nor  an  hour  may 
bring  forth. 

But  his  work,  may  we  not  say?  was  done,  and  well 
done.  He  was  true  to  the  last ;  and  he  died  in  the  zenith 
of  his  well-earned  fame.  His  careworn  and  sad  face, 
with  its  ever-benignant  smile,  seems  now,  as  we  recall 
it,  to  have  indicated  a  certain  presentiment  of  destiny. 
He  may  have  had  a  dim  consciousness,  that  thus  it 
might  be,  from  the  time  of  the  first  plot  against  his 
sacred  life,  on  his  journey  to  Washington  just  before 
his  first  inauguration.  Sometimes  he  alluded  to  it,  as 
in  his  well  remembered  speech  at  Philadelphia  about 
two  years  ago.  But  yet  he  was  guarded  against  all 
harm,  until  by  his  triumphant  reelection  the  success  of 
the  national  cause  was  well-nigh  assured.  He  lived  to 
see  the  great  points  gained  for  which  he  had  been 
struggling.  He  had  early  expressed  the  determination 
of  retaking  all  the  fortified  places  that  had  been 
wrenched  from  the  nation's  hands;  and  by  the  fall  of 
Mobile  the  day  before  he  died,  all  east  of  the  Mississippi 
had  become  ours.  His  place  in  history  is  assured.  He 
is  the  costliest  sacrifice  to  the  great  slaveholders'  re- 
bellion of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  is  the  chief 
victim  of  this  dire  conspiracy  against  human  rights 
and  Divine  law.  His  sacred  image  shall  henceforth 
be  encircled  with  the  aureole  that  befits  a  martyr's 
brow;  for,  as  much  as  any  man  that  ever  fell,  is  he  a 
martyr  to  the  principles  for  which  he  lived  and  died. 
And  his  name  shall  be  named  among  the  great  bene- 
factors of  the  race.  In  every  earthly  sense,  death  to 
him  is  swallowed  up  in  victory.  And  in  a  more  than 
earthly   sense,   we   believe  that   this   is   also   true  of 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  227 

him;  for  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  prayer,  of 
simple  trust  in  God,  acting  upon  and  repeating,  in  his 
later  years,  according  to  the  light  given  unto  him, 
those  words  of  our  blessed  Lord:  "Not  my  will,  but 
thine  be  done." 

And  thus  this  greatest  tragedy  of  our  country's  his- 
tory is  made  forever  memorable  by  the  character  of  its 
victim,  as  well  as  by  its  circumstances  and  instigators. 

Of  our  late  President  it  may,  without  extravagant 
eulogy,  be  said,  that  he  became  endeared  to  the  whole 
nation,  and  won  their  confidence,  as  has  no  other  man 
since  the  days  of  Washington.  And  this  was  the  work 
of  five  short  years.  When  nominated  for  the  Presi- 
dency he  was  neither  widely  nor  intimately  known  by 
the  mass  of  the  people.  Almost  from  the  necessity  of 
the  circumstances  in  which  he  has  since  been  placed, 
he  has  been  vilified,  traduced,  and  misinterpreted 
without  stint.  Through  obloquy  he  won  his  way  to 
fame.  And  what  a  fame,  to  be  built  up  in  so  short  a 
time ;  and  how  worthily,  on  the  whole,  it  has  been  won ! 
Public  confidence  in  him  has  been  steadily  growing 
ever  since  he  came  to  the  chief  chair  of  state;  his  own 
high  character  was  also  ever  growing,  until  he  became 
the  man  in  whom  the  great  body  of  the  people  felt  an 
almost  unlimited  trust.  This  was  owing,  not  to  any 
stirring  eloquence,  of  which  Americans  are  so  passion- 
ately fond,  for  he  was  not  an  eloquent  man ;  not  to  his 
political  astuteness,  for  herein  he  was  surpassed  by 
many  of  his  compeers ;  not  to  his  skill  in  using  the  arts 
of  a  demagogue,  for  he  disowned  the  ways  of  intrigue 
and  bargain;  but  partly  to  the  fact  of  his  proverbial 
honesty ;  in  part  to  the  conviction  that  he  was  truthful 
in  speech  and  character;  partly  to  his  keen  logic,  ac- 


228        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

companied  with  a  certain  flavor  of  qiiaintness  and 
homeliness  in  his  popular  addresses;  in  part  to  the 
simplicity  of  his  character;  partly  to  that  kindliness, 
which  fascinated  those  who  knew  him  best;  in  part  to 
his  broad  and  genial  sympathies  with  the  popular  mind 
and  heart;  yet  chiefly,  perhaps,  to  his  being  to  so  un- 
usual an  extent  the  embodiment  and  representative  of 
the  average  and  substantial  character  of  the  American 
people,  especially  as  brought  out  in  the  great  battle  we 
are  now  waging. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  model  man,  but  he  was 
a  representative  man.  Called  to  what  was  at  that  junc- 
ture the  very  highest  and  most  important  post  in  the 
world's  affairs,  he  so  discharged  the  sacred  trust  and 
bore  the  heavy  burden  laid  upon  him,  that  now  all  men 
see  that  he  was  a  faithful,  wise  and  sagacious  ruler, 
misled  by  no  extremes,  blinded  by  no  false  lights, 
wedded  to  no  impracticable  theory,  waiting  for  events 
long  enough  to  study  them,  yet  speaking  and  acting 
decisively  when  the  opportunity  came:  thus  being  the 
man  we  needed  to  represent  us  in  the  perilous  times 
when  he  was  called  to  play  so  high  a  part.  Many  were 
oft  asking  for  sharper  words  and  more  abrupt  action ; 
others  were  ever  fearful  that  rashness  would  rule  the 
hour  and  hurry  us  on  to  anarchy.  But  there  was  a 
wise  man  at  the  helm,  and  his  hand,  and  his  alone, 
has  firmly  held  it  during  these  four  eventful  years ;  and 
through  all  danger  the  ship  of  state  has  made  its 
course,  avoiding  the  shoals  and  the  breakers,  until  it 
is  now  sailing  on  again,  the  storm  behind  it,  upon  the 
broad  and  open  sea.  It  is  verily  God  that  hath  wrought 
this;  and  he  wrought  it  through  the  mingled  caution 
and  firmness  of  our  late  President. 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  229 

Mr.  Lincoln,  we  say,  was  a  representative  man  in  his 
epoch — a  fair  representative  of  the  best  average  char- 
acter of  the  loyal  people  of  the  United  States  in  our 
great  crisis.  Though  he  had  not  the  breeding  and 
mien  of  the  courtier,  he  had  the  breeding  and  bearing 
of  a  strong  and  genuine  manhood.  God  does  not  always 
choose  those  persons  to  execute  his  purposes,  whom 
short-sighted  men  might  think  best  fitted  for  the  task. 
Hard  work  requires  strong  muscles.  When  great  prin- 
ciples are  to  be  maintained,  we  need  manly  sense,  un- 
blemished integrity,  and  practical  sagacity,  rather  than 
finespun  theories,  courtly  grace,  or  the  arts  of  the 
skillful  demagogue.  In  a  great  crisis,  the  demand  is 
for  a  man  in  whom  we  can  have  entire  confidence.  He 
may  make  mistakes,  for  he  is  human ;  but  he  will  rec- 
tify them,  for  he  is  intent  on  the  public  welfare.  We 
like  a  strong  man,  of  whom  it  can  be  truly  said,  that  he 
means  wellj  and  is  about  right.  This  is  better  than 
genius,  or  eloquence,  or  external  polish;  it  is  better 
than  either  conservatism  or  radicalism,  for  it  is  the 
mean  between  the  two.  Such  a  man  the  people  found 
in  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  they  gave  him  their  confi- 
dence in  spite  of  the  mere  politicians  and  wire-pullers. 
He  was  emphatically  our  representative  man.  He  was 
this  in  his  homely  sense,  his  practical  shrewdness,  his 
love  of  a  good  story  and  an  apt  illustration,  his  logical 
use  of  the  queerest  anecdotes,  his  constant  appeals  to 
a  roundabout  commonsense;  as  also  in  his  kindliness 
of  heart,  his  sympathy  with  the  details  of  private 
griefs,  and  his  magnanimity  toward  his  enemies.  He 
was  our  representative,  too,  in  his  willingness  to  hear 
all  sides  before  he  made  up  his  mind;  in  his  apparent 
hesitation  about  coming  to  a  final  decision  when  such 


230        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

vast  interests  were  at  stake;  in  his  desire  to  see  the 
way  out  before  he  put  his  foot  in ;  and  in  his  inflexible 
earnestness  and  invincible  pertinacity  when  the  deci- 
sion was  at  length  reached.  He  had  the  rare  sagacity, 
better  than  any  theoretic  anticipations,  of  feeling  as  it 
were  the  pulse  of  the  nation;  of  knowing  how  far  it 
was  safe  to  go  at  any  one  time;  of  pausing  when 
doubtful ;  of  keeping  just  far  enough  in  advance  of  the 
current  as  to  seem  to  guide  it  while  really  borne  upon 
it,  being  neither  dashed  upon  the  rocks  ahead  nor  left 
struggling  in  the  eddy  behind.  And  if  he  had  not  done 
so — just  about  this  and  neither  more  nor  less — who  can 
tell  how  different  might  have  been  the  result  in  many  a 
trying  hour?  If  we  were  now  asked,  who,  during  the 
last  four  years,  has,  on  the  whole,  best  represented,  and 
so  guided,  this  whole  nation  in  its  fearful  burdens  and 
struggles,  we  must,  after  all,  I  think,  name  the  name  of 
Lincoln.  We  have  had  abler  politicians,  more  eloquent 
lawyers,  more  polished  diplomats;  men  more  learned 
in  literature,  history  and  law ;  more  magnetic  leaders, 
and  more  decisive  characters;  but  we  have  not  had 
for  many  a  year  a  wiser,  a  better,  a  more  patient  and 
faithful  ruler,  nor  one  who  has  so  deeply  touched  the 
best  sympathies  and  emotions  of  the  general  mind  and 
conscience  of  this  nation.  He  lacked  enthusiasm,  but 
enthusiasm  is  apt  to  be  partial;  he  could  not  stir  the 
people  as  with  the  voice  of  a  trumpet,  but  many  a  time 
his  wise  and  tender  and  trustful  words  have  swept 
the  chords  of  their  better  natures.  Even  his  favorite 
measures  he  never  sought  to  press  by  threats  and  vio- 
lence; and  yet  most  of  them  were  carried  in  spite  of 
all  opposition;  and  he  never  urged  those  that  were 
merely  tentative  and  involved  no  final  principles,  when 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  231 

they  were  judged  inexpedient.  He  was  a  thorough 
republican  in  the  simplicity  of  his  character,  habits 
and  speech,  never  elated  by  his  honors,  nor  affecting 
greatness.  Without  pride  and  without  vanity  he  bore 
the  dignities  of  his  high  office. 

He  was  also  a  thorough  republican,  and  in  this  sense 
too  a  representative  man,  in  his  inwrought  conviction 
of  the  safety  and  power  of  our  republican  institutions. 
He  loved  the  republic  as  a  republic.  His  heart  and 
mind  were  steeped  in  its  fundamental  principles.  He 
believed  that  the  people  might  be  trusted  with  x>ower. 
Our  institutions  had  made  him  what  he  was,  and  he 
loved  a  country  which  could  so  mold  men,  taking  them 
from  the  lowliest  places  and  setting  their  feet  in  the 
palaces  of  kings.  He  had  known  the  full  stimulus  and 
blessings  of  this  government,  and  felt  that  it  was 
strong  and  must  endure.  Next  to  his  trust  in  God  was 
his  trust  in  this  people,  under  the  belief  that  God  was 
guiding  it  to  a  high  destiny.  In  the  darkest  hours  he 
still  believed  that  the  republic  was  safe  and  would  come 
out  triumphant  in  the  end.  He  did  not  admit  the 
thought  that  secession  could  divide  us,  or  rebellion 
subdue  us,  or  slavery  rule  us.  For  all  these  States  he 
saw  only  one  country,  one  constitution,  and  one 
destiny,  and  that  destiny  determined  by  the  principle 
of  freedom. 

He  likewise  represented  the  prevailing  sentiment  of 
the  country  in  respect  to  the  causes  and  results  of  the 
war,  as  well  as  the  method  of  its  prosecution  in  rela- 
tion to  the  subject  of  slavery.  He  saw  in  slavery  the 
real  cause  of  the  rebellion,  and  came  slowly  yet  irresist- 
ibly to  the  conviction,  that  slavery  must  die  in  order 
that  the  nation  might  live.    And  ever  after,  no  man  in 


232        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDKESiSES  * 

the  land  was  more  resolved,  that  the  end  of  the  war 
must  also  be  the  end  of  slavery  in  all  the  revolted 
States.  This  moral  issue  forced  itself  upon  him  with 
ever-increasing  earnestness  and  distinctness,  and  found 
its  most  definite  expression  in  the  ever  memorable 
words  of  his  last  inaugural  address — a  document  which, 
for  its  originality,  simi>licity,  wisdom  and  moral 
earnestness,  will  go  down  to  other  and  far-distant  days. 
In  solemn  words  our  calamities  are  traced  to  the 
Divine  judgments,  which  are  confessed  to  be  true  and 
righteous  altogether.  And  then  his  wise  and  noble 
heart  finds  utterance: — "With  malice  toward  none, 
with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God 
gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the 
work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds,  to 
care  for  those  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for 
their  widows  and  orphans.  And  with  all  this  let  us 
strive  after  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves 
and  with  all  nations." 

Equally  conspicuous^  and  also  expressive  of  the  heart 
of  this  people,  was  his  firm  trust  in  Divine  Providence, 
as  ever  guiding  us,  though  in  ways  we  knew  not  of. 
This,  we  doubt  not,  was  the  keystone  of  his  policy,  as 
it  has  been  the  corner  stone  of  our  strength.  It  was 
often  expressed,  and  never  more  touchingly  than  in  a 
letter  he  wrote  to  that  well-known  philanthropist.  Miss 
Eliza  P.  Gurney,  dated  Executive  Mansion,  Washing- 
ton, September  4,  1864,  in  the  course  of  which  he  says: 
"I  am  much  indebted  to  the  Christian  people  of  this 
country  for  their  Christian  prayers  and  consolations, 
and  to  no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself.  The 
purposes  of  the  Almighty  are  perfect  and  must  prevail, 
though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  perceive  them  in 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  233 

advance.  Surely  he  intends  some  great  good  to  follow 
this  mighty  convulsion,  which  no  mortal  could  make 
and  no  mortal  can  stay."  Such  words  are  doubly  dear 
to  us  now  that  he  is  gone;  they  are  an  invaluable 
legacy.  God  will  not  forget  or  leave  a  nation  that  has 
such  rulers. 

In  coming,  now,  to  speak  of  the  influence  and  effects 
of  this  great  crime,  we  must  never  forget,  that  though 
clouds  and  darkness  may  surround  it,  yet,  with  all  its 
mystery  and  all  its  horrors,  it  is  ordained  by  Him  of 
whom  it  is  said,  that  justice  and  judgment  are  the 
habitation  of  his  throne.  He  who  girded  our  late  ruler 
as  he  did  Cyrus  of  old,  has  taken  him  from  us,  and  thus 
bids  us  learn  the  lesson  of  submission  to  his  sovereign 
authority.  We  may  perchance  vainly  ask.  Why  was 
such  a  precious  sacrifice  needed?  Why  might  not  the 
thousands  already  slaughtered  suflBce?  Why  cannot 
a  good  cause  succeed  except  by  the  blood  of  patriots 
and  martyrs  ?  Why  must  the  death  of  the  world's  best 
friends  be  evermore  the  price  of  the  world's  best  bless- 
ings? But  this  is  the  law  of  life,  the  law  of  history, 
the  method  of  Christian  progress.  The  higher  must 
live  and  die  for  the  lower,  that  the  lower  may  be  dis- 
enthralled and  elevated.  So  it  always  has  been.  In 
the  perennial  and  awe-inspiring  conflict  between  sin 
and  righteousness,  so  it  must  needs  be.  Redemption  is 
purchased  by  sacrifice.  God  spared  not  his  own  Son ; 
God  spares  not  the  best  of  men.  This  shows  us,  and 
is  meant  to  show  us,  not  only  the  evil  of  sin,  but  also 
the  priceless  worth  of  justice  and  righteousness.  And 
so  it  is  here  and  now.  This  country  never  fully  realized 
all  the  turpitude  and  enormity  of  this  rebellion,  until 
our  President  fell  a  victim  to  it.     It  never  knew  how 


234        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

costly  were  the  principles  and  blessings  for  which  we 
have  been  contending,  until  it  estimated  their  worth 
in  this  great  sacrifice.  Now  it  has  learned  the  lesson, 
and  it  will  never  forget  it. 

Sin  is  sin ;  perjury  is  perjury ;  oppression  is  oppres- 
sion ;  treason  is  treason ;  assassination  is  assassination. 
If  there  is  a  crime,  there  must  be  a  penalty.  It  is  a 
wrong  to  the  innocent  to  let  the  guilty  escape.  The 
spurious  mercy  of  the  hour  may  be  cruelty  to  the  next 
generation.  It  is  trifling  with  our  country's  future 
welfarej  to  blot  out  the  record  of  all  these  crimes,  and 
welcome  to  hospitable  boards  and  public  honors  the 
very  leaders  of  the  most  selfish,  inexcusable  and  bar- 
barous revolt  in  history.  It  is  an  old  maxim,  quoted 
by  jurists: — "^e  pereat  Israel,  pereat  Absalom''; 
"Absalom  must  perish  that  Israel  may  not  perish." 
Mercy  may  and  must  be  shown  to  those  that  have  been 
hoodwinked  and  misled;  but  that  mercy  can  be  made 
safe  and  right,  only  as  justice  is  meted  out  to  those 
who  have  brought  all  these  flagrant  woes  and  un- 
numbered ills  upon  our  peaceful  land,  and 

many  a  soul 
Of  mighty  warriors  to  the  viewless  shades 
Untimely  sent. 

If  these  leaders  live  it  must  not  be  in  this  land ;  those 
that  plotted  and  fought  to  destroy  their  country  must 
henceforth  be  without  a  country;  and  through  dis- 
honored lives,  with  the  mark  of  Cain  upon  them,  go 
down  to  unhonored  graves.  From  half  a  million  of 
graves  all  over  the  land,  from  widows  and  orphans  in 
every  hamlet,  from  the  lips  of  justice,  from  the  very 
heart  of  liberty  itself,  comes  up  the  cry  for  justice  upon 
the  guilty  chieftains  of  this  dire  revolt.    Their  nameg 


HENRY  B.  SMITH  235 

must  be  evermore  named  with  those  of  Catiline  and 
Nero ;  and  we  will  teach  our  children,  and  they  theirs, 
to  carry  them  down  through  all  coming  time  as  the 
dread  symbols  of  an  unequaled  perfidy  and  an  un- 
pardoned crime  against  humanity  itself.  There  are 
some  crimes  that  a  nation  cannot  forgive.  Nations 
have  no  future  being;  and  national  justice  must  be 
executed  here  or  it  never  will  be  executed. 

If  we  are  to  have  a  permanent  peace,  not  merely  the 
form,  but  the  animating  spirit  of  the  rebellion  must  be 
subdued.  And  this  can  only  be  done  in  two  ways. 
That  caste  in  which  the  revolt  was  rooted,  must  as  a 
caste  be  extirpated ;  partly  by  emancipation  thoroughly 
carried  out ;  partly  by  executing  justice  upon  the  chief 
authors  and  abettors  of  the  crime.  The  other  way  is, 
by  pouring  all  our  treasures  of  education,  philanthropy 
and  religion  into  the  States  now  impoverished  and  dev- 
astated by  war,  and  uniting  them  to  us  by  new  and 
closer  ties.  And  this  last  work  is  to  be  our  greatest 
work;  and  in  it  will  be  found  and  realized  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  needed  triumphs  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. Especially  must  we  use  all  means  to  raise  up  the 
class  of  freedmen  to  the  dignity  and  responsibilities 
of  their  new  position,  as  men  and  as  citizens.  The 
prejudice  of  color  must  yield  to  the  claims  of  civiliza- 
tion, philanthropy  and  religion. 

And  in  all  our  grief  let  us  not  forget  the  mighty  work 
which  God  hath  wrought  upon  and  in  us  during  these 
quick-passing  and  eventful  years,  in  which  Abraham 
Lincoln  sat  in  the  highest  seat  of  the  nation.  So  great 
a  revolution  was,  perhaps,  never  accomplished  in  so 
short  a  time,  still  leaving  the  old  foundation  and  struc- 
ture of  the  state  unharmed.    Four  millions  of  bondmen 


236        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

have  been  virtually  freed.     Freedom  has  become  the 
settled  policy  of  the  whole  country.    The  unity  of  the 
republic  has  been  ensured  for  a  long  generation.    Our 
supremacy  on  this  continent  is  no  longer  doubtful.    No 
European  power  will  here  attempt  any  new  projects 
of  subjugation  or  colonization.    No  foreign  nation  will 
willingly  molest  us.     Our  resources  are  boundless;  a 
new  tide  of  emigration  will  soon  set  in;  in  all  indus- 
trial pursuits  we  shall  be  independent  of  foreign  aid. 
We  have  passed,  amid  these  throes,  from  the  careless 
and  boastful  youth  to  the  more  firm  and  thoughtful 
manhood  of  our  career.    We  are  more  truly  a  nation 
now  than  we  have  ever  before  been ;  we  are  independent 
of  European  thought  and  opinion ;  we  are  self-reliant. 
We  have  taken  our  place,  in  full  panoply,  in  the  very 
van  of  the  world's  progress,  representing,  as  dare  no 
other  people,  the  rights  of  humanity  and  the  worth  of 
man.    Our  place  in  the  general  history  of  the  world  is 
assured,  as  is  also  the  place  of  him  who,  at  such  a 
juncture,  during  just  these  years  of  travail  and  transi- 
tion, was  the  lawful  and  the  honored  ruler  of  the  re- 
public.    If  Lincoln  lived  for  fame,  he  surely  has  his 
reward ;  as  he  did  not  live  for  fame,  but  for  truth  and 
justice,  his  reward  shall  be  greater  yet. 

Let  us,  then,  this  day  thank  God  that  the  republic 
still  lives,  stronger  than  ever  before;  its  foes  put  under 
its  feet;  its  revilers  put  to  shame;  yea,  cemented  still 
more  strongly  by  the  sacred  blood  which  was  shed  in 
passion  to  destroy  its  life.  The  workman  is  gone; 
the  work  abides. 


ORATION 
HON.   GEORGE   BANCROFT 

Our  grief  and  horror  at  the  crime  which  has  clothed 
the  continent  in  mourning,  find  no  adequate  expression 
in  words,  and  no  relief  in  tears.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America  has  fallen  by  the  hands  of 
an  assassin.  Neither  the  office  with  which  he  was  in- 
vested by  the  approved  choice  of  a  mighty  people,  nor 
the  most  simple-hearted  kindliness  of  nature,  could 
save  him  from  the  fiendish  passions  of  relentless  fanati- 
cism. The  wailings  of  the  millions  attend  his  remains 
as  they  are  borne  in  solemn  procession  over  our  great 
rivers,  along  the  seaside,  bej'ond  the  mountains,  across 
the  prairie,  to  their  resting  place  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.  His  funeral  knell  vibrates  through  the 
world,  and  the  friends  of  freedom  of  every  tongue  and 
in  every  clime  are  his  mourners. 

Too  few  days  have  passed  away  since  Abraham  Lin- 
coln stood  in  the  flush  of  vigorous  manhood,  to  permit 
any  attempt  at  an  analysis  of  his  character  or  an  ex- 
position of  his  career.  We  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
his  large  eyes,  which  in  their  softness  and  beauty 
expressed  nothing  but  benevolence  and  gentleness,  are 
closed  in  death ;  we  almost  look  for  the  pleasant  smile 
that  brought  out  more  vividly  the  earnest  cast  of  his 
features,  which  were  serious  even  to  sadness.    A  few 

237 


238        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

years  ago  he  was  a  village  attorney,  engaged  in  the 
support  of  a  rising  family,  unknown  to  fame,  scarcely 
named  beyond  his  neighborhood;  his  administration 
made  him  the  most  conspicuous  man  in  his  country, 
and  drew  on  him  first  the  astonished  gaze,  and  then 
the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  world. 

Those  who  come  after  us  will  decide  how  much  of  the 
wonderful  results  of  his  public  career  is  due  to  his  own 
good  common  sense,  his  shrewd  sagacity,  readiness  of 
wit,  quick  interpretation  of  the  public  mind,  his  rare 
combination  of  fixedness  and  pliancy,  his  steady  tend- 
ency of  purpose;  how  much  to  the  American  people, 
who,  as  he  walked  with  them  side  by  side,  inspired  him 
with  their  own  wisdom  and  energy ;  and  how  much  to 
the  overruling  laws  of  the  moral  world,  by  which  the 
selfishness  of  evil  is  made  to  defeat  itself.  But  after 
every  allowance,  it  will  remain  that  members  of  the 
government  which  preceded  his  administration  opened 
the  gates  to  treason,  and  he  closed  them;  that  when 
he  went  to  Washington  the  ground  on  which  he  trod 
shook  under  his  feet,  and  he  left  the  republic  on  a 
solid  foundation;  that  traitors  had  seized  public  forts 
and  arsenals,  and  he  recovered  them  for  the  United 
States,  to  whom  they  belonged ;  that  the  capital,  which 
he  found  the  abode  of  slaves,  is  now  the  home  only  of 
the  free;  that  the  boundless  public  domain  which  was 
grasped  at,  and,  in  a  great  measure,  held  for  the  diffu- 
sion of  slavery,  is  now  irrevocably  devoted  to  freedom ; 
that  then  men  talked  a  jargon  of  a  balance  of  power  in 
a  republic  between  slave  States  and  free  States,  and 
now  the  foolish  words  are  blown  away  forever  by  the 
breath  of  Maryland,  Missouri,  and  Tennessee;  that  a 
terrible  cloud  of  poli+^cal  heresy  rose  from  the  abyss, 


GEORGE  BANCROFT  239 

threatening  to  hide  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  under  its 
darkness  a  rebellion  was  growing  into  indefinable  pro- 
portions; now  the  atmosphere  is  purer  than  ever  be- 
fore, and  the  insurrection  is  vanishing  away ;  the  coun- 
try is  cast  into  another  mold,  and  the  gigantic  system 
of  wrong,  which  had  been  the  work  of  more  than  two 
centuries,  is  dashed  down,  we  hope  forever.  And  as  to 
himself,  personally:  he  was  then  scoffed  at  by  the 
proud  as  unfit  for  his  station,  and  now  against  usage 
of  later  years  and  in  spite  of  numerous  competitors  he 
was  the  unbiased  and  the  undoubted  choice  of  the 
American  people  for  a  second  term  of  service.  Through 
all  the  mad  business  of  treason  he  retained  the  sweet- 
ness of  a  most  placable  disposition ;  and  the  slaughter 
of  myriads  of  the  best  on  the  battlefield,  and  the  more 
terrible  destruction  of  our  men  in  captivity  by  the 
slow  torture  of  exposure  and  starvation,  had  never 
been  able  to  provoke  him  into  harboring  one  vengeful 
feeling  or  one  purpose  of  cruelty. 

How  shall  the  nation  most  completely  show  its  sor- 
row at  Mr,  Lincoln's  death?  How  shall  it  best  honor 
his  memory?  There  can  be  but  one  answer.  He  was 
struck  down  when  he  was  highest  in  its  service,  and  in 
strict  conformity  with  duty  was  engaged  in  carrying 
out  principles  affecting  its  life,  its  good  name,  and  its 
relations  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  the  progress  of 
mankind.  Grief  must  take  the  character  of  action,  and 
breathe  itself  forth  in  the  assertion  of  the  policy  to 
which  he  fell  a  victim.  The  standard  which  he  held  in 
his  hand  must  be  uplifted  again  higher  and  more  firmly 
than  before,  and  must  be  carried  on  to  triumph.  Above 
everything  else,  his  proclamation  of  the  first  day  of 
January,  1863,  declaring  throughout  the  parts  of  the 


240        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

country  in  rebellion;,  the  freedom  of  all  persons  who 
had  been  held  as  slaves,  must  be  aflSrmed  and  main- 
tained. 

Events,  as  they  rolled  onward,  have  removed  every 
doubt  of  the  legality  and  binding  force  of  that  procla- 
mation. The  country  and  the  rebel  government  have 
each  laid  claim  to  the  public  service  of  the  slave,  and 
yet  but  one  of  the  two  can  have  a  rightful  claim  to 
such  service.  That  rightful  claim  belongs  to  the  United 
States,  because  every  one  born  on  their  soil,  with  the 
few  exceptions  of  the  children  of  travelers  and  transient 
residents,  owes  them  a  primary  allegiance.  Every  one 
so  born  has  been  counted  among  those  represented  in 
Congress;  every  slave  has  ever  been  represented  in 
Congress ;  imperfectly  and  wrongly  it  may  be — but  still 
has  been  counted  and  represented.  The  slave  born  on 
our  soil  always  owed  allegiance  to  the  general  govern- 
ment. It  may  in  time  past  have  been  a  qualified 
allegiance,  manifested  through  his  master,  as  the  alle- 
giance of  a  ward  through  its  guardian,  or  of  an  infant 
through  its  parent.  But  when  the  master  became  false 
to  his  allegiance,  the  slave  stood  face  to  face  with  his 
country;  and  his  allegiance,  which  may  before  have 
been  a  qualified  one,  became  direct  and  immediate. 
His  chains  fell  off,  and  he  rose  at  once  in  the  presence 
of  the  nation,  bound,  like  the  rest  of  us,  to  its  defense. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  did  but  take  notice  of  the 
already  existing  right  of  the  bondman  to  freedom.  The 
treason  of  the  master  made  it  a  public  crime  for  the 
slave  to  continue  his  obedience ;  the  treason  of  a  State 
set  free  the  collective  bondmen  of  that  State. 

This  doctrine  is  supported  by  the  analogy  of  prec- 
edents.   In  the  times  of  feudalism  the  treason  of  the 


GEORGE  BANCROFT  241 

lord  of  the  manor  deprived  him  of  his  serfs;  the 
spurious  feudalism  that  existed  among  us  differs  in 
many  respects  from  the  feudalism  of  the  middle  ages, 
but  so  far  the  precedent  runs  parallel  with  the  present 
case;  for  treason  the  master  then,  for  treason  the 
master  now,  loses  his  slaves. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  sovereign  appointed  another 
lord  over  the  serfs  and  the  lands  which  they  cultivated ; 
in  our  day  the  sovereign  makes  them  masters  of  their 
own  persons,  lords  over  themselves. 

It  has  been  said  that  we  are  at  war,  and  that  emanci- 
pation is  not  a  belligerent  right.  The  objection  dis- 
appears before  analysis.  In  a  war  between  independent 
powers  the  invading  foreigner  invites  to  his  standard 
all  who  will  give  him  aid,  whether  bond  or  free,  and  he 
rewards  them  according  to  his  ability  and  his  pleasure, 
with  gifts  of  freedom :  but  when  at  a  peace,  he  with- 
draws from  the  invaded  country,  he  must  take  his 
aiders  and  comforters  with  him;  or  if  he  leaves  them 
behind,  where  he  has  no  court  to  enforce  his  decrees, 
he  can  give  them  no  security,  unless  it  be  by  the  stipu- 
lations of  a  treaty.  In  a  civil  war  it  is  altogether 
different.  There,  when  rebellion  is  crushed,  the  old 
government  is  restored,  and  its  courts  resume  their 
jurisdiction.  So  it  is  with  us;  the  United  States  have 
courts  of  their  own,  that  must  punish  the  guilt  of 
treason  and  vindicate  the  freedom  of  persons  whom 
the  fact  of  rebellion  has  set  free. 

Nor  may  it  be  said,  that  because  slavery  existed  in 
most  of  the  States  when  the  Union  was  formed,  it 
cannot  rightfully  be  interfered  with  now.  A  change 
has  taken  place,  such  as  Madison  foresaw,  and  for 
which  he  pointed  out  the  remedy.     The  constitutions 


242        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

of  States  had  been  transformed  before  the  plotters  of 
treason  carried  them  awaj  into  rebellion.  When  the 
Federal  Constitution  was  framed,  general  emancipa- 
tion was  thought  to  be  near;  and  everywhere  the 
respective  legislatures  had  authority,  in  the  exercise 
of  their  ordinary  functions,  to  do  away  with  slavery. 
Since  that  time  the  attempt  has  been  made  in  what 
are  called  slave  States,  to  render  the  condition  of 
slavery  perpetual;  and  events  have  proved,  with  the 
clearness  of  demonstration,  that  a  constitution  which 
seeks  to  continue  a  caste  of  hereditary  bondmen 
through  endless  generations  is  inconsistent  with  the 
existence  of  republican  institutions. 

So,  then,  the  new  President  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  must  insist  that  the  proclamation  of 
freedom  shall  stand  as  a  reality.  And,  moreover,  the 
people  must  never  cease  to  insist  that  the  Constitu- 
tion shall  be  so  amended  as  utterly  to  prohibit  slavery 
on  any  part  of  our  soil  for  evermore. 

Alas!  that  a  State  in  our  vicinity  should  withhold 
its  assent  to  this  last  beneficent  measure:  its  refusal 
was  an  encouragement  to  our  enemies  equal  to  the  gain 
of  a  pitched  battle ;  and  delays  the  only  hopeful  method 
of  pacification.  The  removal  of  the  cause  of  the  rebel- 
lion is  not  only  demanded  by  justice;  it  is  the  policy 
of  mercy,  making  room  for  a  wider  clemency ;  it  is  the 
part  of  order  against  a  chaos  of  controversy;  its  suc- 
cess brings  with  it  true  reconcilement,  a  lasting  peace, 
a  continuous  growth  of  confidence  through  an  assimi- 
lation of  the  social  condition. 

Here  is  the  fitting  expression  of  the  mourning  of 
to-day. 

And  let  no  lover  of  his  country  say  that  this  warn- 


GEORGE  BANCROFT  243 

ing  is  uncalled  for.  The  cry  is  delusive  that  slavery  is 
dead.  Even  now  it  is  nerving  itself  for  a  fresh  struggle 
for  continuance.  The  last  winds  from  the  South  waft 
to  us  the  sad  intelligence  that  a  man  who  had  sur- 
rounded himself  with  the  glory  of  the  most  brilliant 
and  most  varied  achievements,  who  but  a  week  ago  was 
counted  with  affectionate  pride  among  the  greatest 
benefactors  of  his  country  and  the  ablest  generals  of 
all  time,  has  initiated  the  exercise  of  more  than  the 
whole  power  of  the  Executive,  and  under  the  name  of 
peace  has,  perhaps  unconsciously,  revived  slavery,  and 
given  the  hope  of  security  and  political  power  to 
traitors,  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Why 
could  he  not  remember  the  dying  advice  of  Washing- 
ton, never  to  draw  the  sword  but  for  self-defense  or 
the  rights  of  his  country,  and  when  drawn,  never  to 
sheath  it  till  its  work  should  be  accomplished?  And, 
yet,  from  this  ill-considered  act,  which  the  people  with 
one  united  voice  condemn,  no  great  evil  will  follow 
save  the  shadow  on  his  own  fame,  and  that,  also,  we 
hope  will  pass  away.  The  individual,  even  in  the 
greatness  of  military  glory,  sinks  into  insignificance 
before  the  resistless  movements  of  ideas  in  the  history 
of  man.  No  one  can  turn  back  or  stay  the  march  of 
Providence. 

No  sentiment  of  despair  may  mix  with  our  sorrow. 
We  owe  it  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  we  owe  it  to  the 
cause  of  popular  liberty  throughout  the  world,  that  the 
sudden  crime  which  has  taken  the  life  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  shall  not  produce  the  least  impedi- 
ment in  the  smooth  course  of  public  affairs.  This  great 
city,  in  the  midst  of  unexampled  emblems  of  deeply 
seated  grief,  has  sustained  itself  with  composure  and 


244        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

magnanimity.  It  has  nobly  done  its  part  in  guarding 
against  the  derangement  of  business  or  the  slightest 
shock  to  public  credit.  The  enemies  of  the  republic 
put  it  to  the  severest  trial ;  but  the  voice  of  faction  has 
not  been  heard;  doubt  and  despondency  have  been  un- 
known. In  serene  majesty  the  country  rises  in  the 
beauty  and  strength  and  hope  of  youth,  and  proves  to 
the  world  the  quiet  energy  and  the  durability  of  insti- 
tutions growing  out  of  the  reason  and  affections  of  the 
people. 

Heaven  has  willed  it  that  the  United  States  shall 
live.  The  nations  of  the  earth  cannot  spare  them.  All 
the  worn-out  aristocracies  of  Europe  saw  in  the  spu- 
rious feudalism  of  slaveholding,  their  strongest  outpost, 
and  banded  themselves  together  with  the  deadly 
enemies  of  our  national  life.  If  the  Old  World  will 
discuss  the  respective  advantages  of  oligarchy  or 
equality;  of  the  union  of  church  and  state,  or  the 
rightful  freedom  of  religion;  of  land  accessible  to  the 
many,  or  of  land  monopolized  by  an  ever-decreasing 
number  of  the  few,  the  United  States  must  live  to 
control  the  decision  by  their  quiet  and  unobtrusive 
example.  It  has  often  and  truly  been  observed,  that 
the  trust  and  affection  of  the  masses  gather  naturally 
round  an  individual;  if  the  inquiry  is  made,  whether 
the  man  so  trusted  and  beloved  shall  elicit  from  the 
reason  of  the  people,  enduring  institutions  of  their 
own,  or  shall  sequester  political  power  for  a  superin- 
tending dynasty,  the  United  States  must  live  to  solve 
the  problem.  If  a  question  is  raised  on  the  respective 
merits  of  Timoleon  or  Julius  Caesar,  of  Washington  or 
Napoleon,  the  United  States  must  be  there  to  call  to 
mind  that  there  were  twelve  Ca3sars>  most  of  them  the 


GEORGE  BANCROFT  245 

opprobrium  of  the  human  race,  and  to  contrast  with 
them  the  line  of  American  Presidents. 

The  duty  of  the  hour  is  incomplete,  our  mourning  is 
insincere,  if,  while  we  express  unwavering  trust  in  the 
great  principles  that  underlie  our  government,  we  do 
not  also  give  our  support  to  the  man  to  whom  the 
people  have  entrusted  its  administration. 

Andrew  Johnson  is  now,  by  the  Constitution,  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  he  stands  before 
the  world  as  the  most  conspicuous  representative  of 
the  industrial  classes.  Left  an  orphan  at  four  years 
old,  poverty  and  toil  were  his  steps  to  honor.  His 
youth  was  not  passed  in  the  halls  of  colleges ;  neverthe- 
less he  has  received  a  thorough  political  education  in 
statesmanship,  in  the  school  of  the  people,  and  by  long 
experience  of  public  life.  A  village  functionary ;  mem- 
ber successively  of  each  branch  of  the  Tennessee  Legis- 
lature, hearing  with  a  thrill  of  joy,  the  words,  "the 
Union,  it  must  be  preserved" ;  a  representative  in  Con- 
gress for  successive  years ;  Governor  of  the  great  State 
of  Tennessee,  approved  as  its  Governor  by  re-election; 
he  was  at  the  opening  of  the  rebellion  a  Senator  from 
that  State  in  Congress.  Then  at  the  Capitol,  when 
Senators,  unrebuked  by  the  government,  sent  word  by 
telegram  to  seize  forts  and  arsenals,  he  alone  from  that 
Southern  region  told  them  what  the  Government  did 
not  dare  to  tell  them,  that  they  were  traitors,  and 
deserved  the  punishment  of  treason.  Undismayed  by 
a  perpetual  purpose  of  public  enemies  to  take  his  life, 
bearing  up  against  the  still  greater  trial  of  the  perse- 
cution of  his  wife  and  children,  in  due  time  he  went 
back  to  his  State,  determined  to  restore  it  to  the  Union, 
or  die  with  the  American  flag  for  his  winding  sheet. 


246        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDKESSES 

And  now,  at  the  call  of  the  United  States,  he  has 
returned  to  Washington  as  a  conqueror,  with  Tennessee 
as  a  free  State  for  his  trophy.  It  remains  for  him  to 
consummate  the  vindication  of  the  Union. 

To  that  Union  Abraham  Lincoln  has  fallen  a  martyr. 
His  death,  which  was  meant  to  sever  it  beyond  repair, 
binds  it  more  closely  and  more  firmly  than  ever.  The 
blow  aimed  at  him,  was  aimed  not  at  the  native  of 
Kentucky,  not  at  the  citizen  of  Illinois,  but  at  the  man, 
who,  as  President,  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment, stood  as  the  representative  of  every  man  in 
the  United  States.  The  object  of  the  crime  was  the 
life  of  the  whole  people;  and  it  wounds  the  affections 
of  the  whole  people.  From  Maine  to  the  southwest 
boundary  on  the  Pacific,  it  makes  us  one.  The  country 
may  have  needed  an  imperishable  grief  to  touch  its 
inmost  feeling.  The  grave  that  receives  the  remains 
of  Lincoln,  receives  the  costly  sacrifice  to  the  Union; 
the  monument  which  will  rise  over  his  body  will  bear 
witness  to  the  Union ;  his  enduring  memory  will  assist 
during  countless  ages  to  bind  the  States  together,  and 
to  incite  to  the  love  of  our  one  undivided,  indivisible 
country.  Peace  to  the  ashes  of  our  departed  friend, 
the  friend  of  his  country  and  of  his  race.  He  was  happy 
in  his  life,  for  he  was  the  restorer  of  the  republic ;  he 
was  happy  in  his  death,  for  his  martyrdom  will  plead 
forever  for  the  Union  of  the  States  and  the  freedom 
of  man. 


ORATION 
AT  THE  BUEIAL  AT  SPRINGFIELD 

BISHOP   SIMPSON 

Near  the  capital  of  this  large  and  growing  State  of 
Illinois,  in  the  midst  of  this  beautiful  grove,  and  at 
the  open  mouth  of  the  vault  which  has  just  received 
the  remains  of  our  fallen  chieftain,  we  gather  to  pay 
a  tribute  of  respect  and  to  drop  the  tears  of  sorrow 
around  the  ashes  of  the  mighty  dead.  A  little  more 
than  four  years  ago  he  left  his  plain  and  quiet  home 
in  yonder  city,  receiving  the  parting  words  of  the  con- 
course of  friends  who,  in  the  midst  of  the  dropping  of 
the  gentle  shower,  gathered  around  him.  He  spoke  of 
the  pain  of  parting  from  the  place  where  he  had  lived 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  where  his  children  had  been 
born,  and  his  home  had  been  rendered  pleasant  by 
friendly  associations,  and,  as  he  left,  he  made  an 
earnest  request,  in  the  hearing  of  some  who  are  present 
at  this  hour,  that,  as  he  was  about  to  enter  upon  respon- 
sibilities which  he  believed  to  be  greater  than  any  which 
had  fallen  upon  any  man  since  the  days  of  Washing- 
ton, the  people  would  offer  up  prayers  that  God  would 
aid  and  sustain  him  in  the  work  which  they  had  given 
him  to  do.  His  company  left  your  quiet  city,  but,  as  it 
went,  snares  were  in  waiting  for  the  Chief  Magistrate. 
Scarcely  did  he  escape  the  dangers  of  the  way  or  the 
hands  of  the  assassin,  as  he  neared  Washington;  and 

247 


248        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

I  believe  he  escaped  only  through  the  vigilance  of 
oflBcers  and  the  prayers  of  his  people,  so  that  the  blow 
was  suspended  for  more  than  four  years,  which  was 
at  last  permitted,  through  the  providence  of  God,  to 
fall. 

How  different  the  occasion  which  witnessed  his  de- 
parture from  that  which  witnessed  his  return.  Doubt- 
less you  expected  to  take  him  by  the  hand,  and  to  feel 
the  warm  grasp  which  30U  had  felt  in  other  days,  and 
to  see  the  tall  form  walking  among  you  which  you  had 
delighted  to  honor  in  years  past.  But  he  was  never 
permitted  to  come  until  he  came  with  lips  mute  and 
silent,  the  frame  encoffined,  and  a  weeping  nation  fol- 
lowing as  his  mourners.  Such  a  scene  as  his  return 
to  you  was  never  witnessed.  Among  the  events  of 
history  there  have  been  great  processions  of  mourners. 
There  was  one  for  the  patriarch  Jacob,  which  went  up 
from  Egypt,  and  the  Egyptians  wondered  at  the  evi- 
dences of  reverence  and  filial  affection  which  came  from 
the  hearts  of  the  Israelites.  There  was  mourning  when 
Moses  fell  upon  the  heights  of  Pisgah  and  was  hid  from 
human  view.  There  have  been  mournings  in  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth  when  kings  and  princes  have  fallen, 
but  never  was  there,  in  the  history  of  man,  such  mourn- 
ing as  that  which  has  accompanied  this  funeral  pro- 
cession, and  has  gathered  around  the  mortal  remains 
of  him  who  was  our  loved  one,  and  who  now  sleeps 
among  us.  If  we  glance  at  the  procession  which  fol- 
lowed him,  we  see  how  the  nation  stood  aghast.  Tears 
filled  the  eyes  of  manly,  sunburnt  faces.  Strong  men, 
as  they  clasped  the  hands  of  their  friends,  were  unable 
to  find  vent  for  their  grief  in  words.  Women  and 
little   children    caught   up    the   tidings   as   they    ran 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  249 

through  the  land,  and  were  melted  into  tears.  The 
nation  stood  still.  Men  left  their  plows  in  the  fields 
and  asked  what  the  end  should  be.  The  hum  of  manu- 
factories ceased,  and  the  sound  of  the  hammer  was  not 
heard.  Busy  merchants  closed  their  doors,  and  in  the 
exchange  gold  passed  no  more  from  hand  to  hand. 
Though  three  weeks  have  elapsed,  the  nation  has 
scarcely  breathed  easily  yet,  A  mournful  silence  is 
abroad  upon  the  land ;  nor  is  this  mourning  confined  to 
any  class  or  to  any  district  of  country.  Men  of  all 
political  parties,  and  of  all  religious  creeds,  have  united 
in  paying  this  mournful  tribute.  The  archbishop  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  New  York  and  a  Prot- 
estant minister  walked  side  by  side  in  the  sad  proces- 
sion, and  a  Jewish  rabbi  performed  a  part  of  the 
solemn  services. 

Here  are  gathered  around  his  tomb  the  representa- 
tives of  the  army  and  navy,  senators,  judges,  gov- 
ernors, and  officers  of  all  the  branches  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Here,  too,  are  members  of  civic  processions, 
with  men  and  women  from  the  humblest  as  well  as  the 
highest  occupations.  Here  and  there,  too,  are  tears,  as 
sincere  and  warm  as  any  that  drop,  which  come  from 
the  eyes  of  those  whose  kindred  and  whose  race  have 
been  freed  from  their  chains  by  him  whom  they  mourn 
as  their  deliverer.  More  persons  have  gazed  on  the  face 
of  the  departed  than  ever  looked  upon  the  face  of  any 
other  departed  man.  More  races  have  looked  on  the 
procession  for  1,600  miles  or  more — by  night  and  by 
day — by  sunlight,  dawn,  twilight,  and  by  torchlight, 
than  ever  before  watched  the  progress  of  a  procession. 

We  ask  why  this  wonderful  mourning — this  great 
procession?    I  answer,  first,  a  part  of  the  interest  has 


250        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

arisen  from  the  times  in  which  we  live,  and  in  which 
he  that  had  fallen  was  a  principal  actor.  It  is  a 
principle  of  our  nature  that  feelings,  once  excited, 
turn  readily  from  the  object  by  which  they  are  excited, 
to  some  other  object  which  may  for  the  time  being  take 
possession  of  the  mind.  Another  principle  is,  the 
deepest  affections  of  our  hearts  gather  around  some 
human  form  in  which  are  incarnated  the  living 
thoughts  and  ideas  of  the  passing  age.  If  we  look  then 
at  the  times,  we  see  an  age  of  excitement.  For  four 
years  the  popular  heart  has  been  stirred  to  its  inmost 
depth.  War  had  come  upon  us,  dividing  families, 
separating  nearest  and  dearest  friends — a  war,  the  ex- 
tent and  magnitude  of  which  no  one  could  estimate — 
a  war  in  which  the  blood  of  brethren  was  shed  by  a 
brother's  hand.  A  call  for  soldiers  was  made  by  this 
voice  now  hushed,  and  all  over  the  land,  from  hill  and 
mountain,  from  plain  to  valley,  there  sprang  up  thou- 
sands of  bold  hearts,  ready  to  go  forth  and  save  our 
national  Union.  This  feeling  of  excitement  was  trans- 
ferred next  into  a  feeling  of  deep  grief  because  of  the 
dangers  in  which  our  country'  was  placed.  Many  said, 
"•Is  it  possible  to  save  our  nation  ?"  Some  in  our  coun- 
try, and  nearly  all  the  leading  men  in  other  countries, 
declared  it  to  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  Union ; 
and  many  an  honest  and  patriotic  heart  was  deeply 
pained  with  apprehensions  of  common  ruin ;  and  many, 
in  grief  and  almost  in  despair,  anxiously  inquired. 
What  shall  the  end  of  these  things  be?  In  addition 
to  this  wives  had  given  their  husbands,  mothers  their 
sons,  the  pride  and  joy  of  their  hearts.  They  saw  them 
put  on  the  uniform,  they  saw  them  take  the  martial 
step,  and  they  tried  to  hide  their  deep  feeling  of  sad- 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  251 

ness.  Many  dear  ones  slept  upon  the  battlefield  never 
to  return  again,  and  there  was  mourning  in  every  man- 
sion and  in  every  cabin  in  our  broad  land.  Then  came 
a  feeling  of  deeper  sadness  as  the  story  came  of 
prisoners  tortured  to  death  or  starved  through  the 
mandates  of  those  who  are  called  the  representatives 
of  the  chivalry,  and  who  claimed  to  be  the  honorable 
ones  of  the  earth ;  and  as  we  read  the  stories  of  frames 
attenuated  and  reduced  to  mere  skeletons,  our  grief 
turned  partly  into  horror  and  partly  into  a  cry  for 
vengeance. 

Then  this  feeling  was  changed  to  one  of  joy.  There 
came  signs  of  the  end  of  this  rebellion.  We  followed 
the  career  of  our  glorious  generals.  We  saw  our  army, 
under  the  command  of  the  brave  oflScer  who  is  guiding 
this  procession,  climb  up  the  heights  of  Lookout  Moun- 
tain and  drive  the  rebels  from  their  strongholds.  An- 
other brave  general  swept  through  Georgia,  South  and 
North  Carolina,  and  drove  the  combined  armies  of  the 
rebels  before  him,  while  the  honored  Lieutenant- 
General  held  Lee  and  his  hosts  in  a  death  grasp. 

Then  the  tidings  came  that  Richmond  was  evacuated, 
and  that  Lee  had  surrendered.  The  bells  rang  merrily 
all  over  the  land.  The  booming  of  cannon  was  heard ; 
illuminations  and  torchlight  processions  manifested 
the  general  joy,  and  families  were  looking  for  the 
speedy  return  of  their  loved  ones  from  the  field  of 
battle.  Just  in  the  midst  of  this  wildest  joy,  in  one 
hour — nay,  in  one  moment — the  tidings  thrilled 
throughout  the  land  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  best 
of  Presidents,  had  perished  by  the  hands  of  an  assas- 
sin ;  and  then  all  the  feelings  which  had  been  gathering 
for  four  years,  in  forms  of  excitement,  grief,  horror, 


252        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

and  joy,  turned  into  one  wail  of  woe — a  sadness  inex- 
pressible— an  anguish  unutterable.  But  it  is  not  the 
times  merely  which  caused  this  mourning.  The  mode 
of  his  death  must  be  taken  into  the  account.  Had  he 
died  on  a  bed  of  illness,  with  kind  friends  around  him ; 
had  the  sweat  of  death  been  wiped  from  his  brow  by 
gentle  hands,  while  he  was  yet  conscious ;  could  he  have 
had  power  to  speak  words  of  affection  to  his  stricken 
widow,  or  words  of  counsel  to  us  like  those  which  we 
heard  in  his  parting  inaugural  at  Washington,  which 
shall  now  be  immortal — how  it  would  have  softened  or 
assuaged  something  of  the  grief.  There  might,  at  least, 
have  been  preparation  for  the  event.  But  no  moment 
of  warning  was  given  to  him  or  to  us.  He  was  stricken 
down,  too,  when  his  hopes  for  the  end  of  the  rebellion 
were  bright,  and  prospects  of  a  joyous  life  were  before 
him.  There  was  a  cabinet  meeting  that  day,  said  to 
have  been  the  most  cheerful  and  happy  of  any  held 
since  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion.  After  this  meeting 
he  talked  with  his  friends,  and  spoke  of  the  four  years 
of  tempest,  of  the  storm  being  over,  and  of  the  four 
years  of  pleasure  and  joy  now  awaiting  him,  as  the 
weight  of  care  and  anxiety  would  be  taken  from  his 
mind,  and  he  could  have  happy  days  with  his  family 
again.  In  the  midst  of  these  anticipations  he  left  his 
house  never  to  return  alive.  The  evening  was  Good 
Friday,  the  saddest  day  in  the  whole  calendar  for  the 
Christian  Church — henceforth  in  this  country  to  be 
made  sadder,  if  possible,  by  the  memory  of  our 
nation's  loss ;  and  so  filled  with  grief  was  every  Chris- 
tian heart  that  even  all  the  joyous  thought  of  Easter 
Sunday  failed  to  remove  the  crushing  sorrow  under 
which  the  true  worshiper  bowed  in  the  house  of  God. 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  253 

But  the  great  cause  of  this  raouruiiig  is  to  be  found 
in  the  man  himself.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  no  ordinary  man. 
I  believe  the  conviction  has  been  gi'owing  on  the 
nation's  mind,  as  it  certainly  has  been  on  my  own, 
especially  in  the  last  years  of  his  administration,  that, 
by  the  hand  of  God,  he  was  especially  singled  out  to 
guide  our  Government  in  these  troublesome  times,  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  hand  of  God  may  be  traced  in 
many  of  the  events  connected  with  his  history.  First, 
then,  I  recognize  this  in  the  physical  education  which 
he  received,  and  which  prepared  him  for  enduring 
herculean  labors.  In  the  toils  of  his  boyhood  and  the 
labors  of  his  manhood,  God  was  giving  him  an  iron 
frame.  Next  to  this  was  his  identification  with  the 
heart  of  the  great  people,  understanding  their  feelings 
because  he  was  one  of  them,  and  connected  with  them 
in  their  movements  and  life.  His  education  was  simple. 
A  few  months  spent  in  the  schoolhouse  gave  him  the 
elements  of  education.  He  read  few  books,  but  mas- 
tered all  he  read.  Pilgrim's  Progress,  ^sop's  Fables, 
and  the  Life  of  Washington  were  his  favorites.  In 
these  we  recognize  the  works  which  gave  bias  to  his 
character,  and  which  partly  molded  his  style.  His 
early  life,  with  its  varied  struggles,  joined  him  indis- 
solubly  to  the  working  masses,  and  no  elevation  in 
society  diminished  his  respect  for  the  sons  of  toil.  He 
knew  what  it  was  to  fell  the  tall  trees  of  the  forest 
and  to  stem  the  current  of  the  broad  Mississippi.  His 
home  was  in  the  growing  West,  the  heart  of  the  re- 
public, and,  invigorated  by  the  wind  which  swept  over 
its  prairies,  he  learned  lessons  of  self-reliance  which 
sustained  him  in  seasons  of  adversity. 

His  genius  was  soon  recognized,  as  true  genius  al- 


254        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

ways  will  be,  and  he  was  placed  in  the  Legislature  of 
his  State.  Already  acquainted  with  the  principles  of 
law,  he  devoted  his  thoughts  to  matters  of  public 
interest,  and  began  to  be  looked  on  as  the  coming 
statesman.  As  early  as  1839  he  presented  resolutions 
in  the  Legislature,  asking  for  emancipation  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  when,  with  but  rare  exceptions, 
the  whole  popular  mind  of  his  State  was  opposed  to 
the  measure.  From  that  hour  he  was  a  steady  and 
uniform  friend  of  humanity,  and  was  preparing  for  the 
conflict  of  later  years. 

If  you  ask  me  on  what  mental  characteristic  his 
greatness  rested,  I  answer,  on  a  quick  and  ready  per- 
ception of  facts ;  on  a  memory  unusually  tenacious  and 
retentive;  and  on  a  logical  turn  of  mind,  which  fol- 
lowed sternly  and  unwaveringly  every  link  in  the  chain 
of  thought  on  every  subject  which  he  was  called  to 
investigate.  I  think  there  have  been  minds  more  broad 
in  their  character,  more  comprehensive  in  their  scope, 
but  I  doubt  if  ever  there  has  been  a  man  who  could 
follow  step  by  step,  with  more  logical  power,  the  points 
which  he  desired  to  illustrate.  He  gained  this  power 
by  the  close  study  of  geometry,  and  by  a  determination 
to  perceive  the  truth  in  all  its  relations  and  simplicity, 
and,  when  found,  to  utter  it. 

It  is  said  of  him  that  in  childhood,  when  he  had  any 
difficulty  in  listening  to  a  conversation  to  ascertain 
what  people  meant,  if  he  retired  to  rest  he  could  not 
sleep  till  he  tried  to  understand  the  precise  points 
intended,  and,  when  understood,  to  frame  language  to 
convey  it  in  a  clearer  manner  to  others.  Who  that  has 
read  his  messages  fails  to  perceive  the  directness  and 
the  simplicity  of  his  style?    And  this  very  trait,  which 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  255 

was  scoffed  at  and  decried  by  opponents,  is  now  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  strong  points  of  that  mighty  mind 
which  has  so  powerfully  influenced  the  destiny  of  this 
nation,  and  which  shall,  for  ages  to  come,  influence  the 
destiny  of  humanity. 

It  was  not,  however,  chiefly  by  his  mental  faculties 
that  he  gained  such  control  over  mankind.  His  moral 
power  gave  him  preeminence.  The  convictions  of  men 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  honest  man  led  them  to 
yield  to  his  guidance.  As  has  been  said  of  Cobden, 
whom  he  greatly  resembled,  he  made  all  men  feel  a 
sense  of  himself — a  recognition  of  individuality — a  self- 
relying  power.  They  saw  in  him  a  man  whom  they 
believed  would  do  what  is  right,  regardless  of  all  con- 
sequences. It  was  this  moral  feeling  which  gave  him 
the  greatest  hold  on  the  people,  and  made  his  utterances 
almost  oracular.  When  the  nation  was  angered  by  the 
perfidy  of  foreign  nations  in  allowing  privateers  to  be 
fitted  out,  he  uttered  the  significant  expression,  "One 
war  at  a  time,"  and  it  stilled  the  national  heart.  When 
his  own  friends  were  divided  as  to  what  steps  should 
be  taken  as  to  slavery,  that  simple  utterance,  "I  will 
save  the  Union,  if  I  can,  with  slavery;  if  not,  slavery 
must  perish,  for  the  Union  must  be  preserved,"  became 
the  rallying  word.  Men  felt  the  struggle  was  for  the 
Union,  and  all  other  questions  must  be  subsidiary. 

But,  after  all,  by  the  acts  of  a  man  shall  his  fame  be 
perpetuated.  What  are  his  acts?  Much  praise  is  due 
to  the  men  who  aided  him.  He  called  able  counselors 
around  him — some  of  whom  have  displayed  the  highest 
order  of  talent,  united  with  the  purest  and  most  de- 
voted patriotism.  He  summoned  able  generals  into  the 
field — men  who  have  borne  the  sword  as  bravely  as 


256        LINCOLN  MEMOKIAL  ADDRESSES 

ever  any  human  arm  has  borne  it.  He  had  the  aid  of 
prayerful  and  thoughtful  men  everywhere.  But,  under 
his  own  guiding  hands,  wise  counsels  were  combined 
and  great  movements  conducted. 

Turn  toward  the  different  departments.  We  had  an 
unorganized  militia,  a  mere  skeleton  army,  yet,  under 
his  care,  that  army  has  been  enlarged  into  a  force 
which,  for  skill,  intelligence,  efficiency,  and  bravery, 
surpasses  any  which  the  world  had  ever  seen.  Before 
its  veterans  the  fame  of  even  the  renowned  veterans 
of  Napoleon  shall  pale  (applause),  and  the  mothers 
and  sisters  on  these  hill  sides,  and  all  over  the  land, 
shall  take  to  their  arms  again  braver  sons  and  brothers 
than  ever  fought  in  European  wars.  The  reason  is 
obvious.  Money,  or  a  desire  for  fame,  collected  those 
armies,  or  they  were  rallied  to  sustain  favorite  thrones 
or  dynasties;  but  the  armies  he  called  into  being 
fought  for  liberty,  for  the  Union,  and  for  the  right  of 
self-government ;  and  many  of  them  felt  that  the  battles 
they  won  were  for  humanity  everywhere  and  for  all 
time;  for  I  believe  that  God  has  not  suffered  this  ter- 
rible rebellion  to  come  upon  our  land  merely  for  a 
chastisement  to  us,  or  as  a  lesson  to  our  age.  There 
are  moments  which  involve  in  themselves  eternities. 
There  are  instants  which  seem  to  contain  germs  which 
shall  develop  and  bloom  forever.  Such  a  moment  came 
in  the  tide  of  time  to  our  laud,  when  a  question  must 
be  settled  which  affected  all  the  earth.  The  contest 
was  for  human  freedom,  not  for  this  republic  merely; 
not  for  the  Union  simply,  but  to  decide  whether  the 
people,  as  a  people,  in  their  entire  majesty,  were 
destined  to  be  the  government,  or  whether  they  were  to 
be  subject  to  tyrants  or  aristocrats,  or  to  class  rule  of 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  257 

any  kind.  This  is  the  great  question  for  which  we  have 
been  fighting,  and  its  decision  is  at  hand,  and  the 
result  of  the  contest  will  affect  the  ages  to  come.  If 
successful,  republics  will  spread  in  spite  of  monarchs, 
all  over  this  earth.  [Exclamations  of  "Amen." 
"Thank  God."] 

I  turn  from  the  army  to  the  navy.  What  was  it 
when  the  war  commenced?  Now  we  have  our  ships- 
of-war  at  home  and  abroad,  to  guard  privateers  in 
foreign  sympathizing  ports,  as  well  as  to  care  for 
every  part  of  our  own  coast.  They  have  taken  forts 
that  military  men  said  could  not  be  taken,  and  a  brave 
admiral,  for  the  first  time  in  the  world's  history,  lashed 
himself  to  the  mast,  there  to  remain  as  long  as  he  had 
a  particle  of  skill  or  strength  to  watch  over  his  ship, 
while  it  engaged  in  the  perilous  contest  of  taking  the 
strong  forts  of  the  rebels. 

Then,  again,  I  turn  to  the  treasury  department. 
Where  should  the  money  come  from?  Wise  men  pre- 
dicted ruin,  but  our  national  credit  has  been  main- 
tained, and  our  currency  is  safer  to-day  than  it  ever 
was  before.  Not  only  so,  but  through  our  national 
bonds,  if  properly  used,  we  shall  have  a  permanent 
basis  for  our  currency,  and  an  investment  so  desirable 
for  capitalists  of  other  nations  that,  under  the  laws 
of  trade,  I  believe  the  center  of  exchange  will  speedily 
be  transferred  from  England  to  the  United  States. 

But  the  great  act  of  the  mighty  chieftain,  on  which 
his  fame  shall  rest  long  after  his  frame  shall  molder 
away,  is  that  of  giving  freedom  to  a  race.  We  have  all 
been  taught  to  revere  the  sacred  characters.  Among 
them  Moses  stands  preeminently  high.  He  received 
the  law  from  God,  and  his  name  is  honored  among  the 


258        LINCOLN  MEMOltlAL  ADDRESSES 

hosts  of  heaven.  Was  not  his  greatest  act  the  deliver- 
ing of  three  millions  of  his  kindred  out  of  bondage? 
Yet  we  may  assert  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  his  proc- 
lamation, liberated  more  enslaved  people  than  ever 
Moses  set  free,  and  those  not  of  his  kindred  or  his  race. 
Such  a  power,  or  such  an  opportunity,  God  has  seldom 
given  to  man.  When  other  events  shall  have  been  for- 
gotten; when  this  world  shall  have  become  a  network 
of  republics;  when  every  throne  shall  be  swept  from 
the  face  of  the  earth;  when  literature  shall  enlighten 
all  minds ;  when  the  claims  of  humanity  shall  be  recog- 
nized everywhere,  this  act  shall  still  be  conspicuous  on 
the  pages  of  history.  We  are  thankful  that  God  gave 
to  Abraham  Lincoln  the  decision  and  wisdom  and 
grace  to  issue  that  proclamation,  which  stands  high 
above  all  other  papers  which  have  been  penned  by  un- 
inspired men.     [Applause.] 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  good  man.  He  was  known 
as  an  honest,  temperate,  forgiving  man;  a  just  man;  a 
man  of  noble  heart  in  every  way.  As  to  his  religious 
experience,  I  cannot  speak  definitely,  because  I  was 
not  privileged  to  know  much  of  his  private  sentiments. 
My  acquaintance  with  him  did  not  give  me  the  oppor- 
tunity to  hear  him  speak  on  those  topics.  This  I  know, 
however,  he  read  the  Bible  frequently;  loved  it  for  its 
great  truths  and  its  profound  teachings;  and  he  tried 
to  be  guided  by  its  precepts.  He  believed  in  Christ  the 
Saviour  of  sinners;  and  I  think  he  was  sincere  in  try- 
ing to  bring  his  life  into  harmony  with  the  principles 
of  revealed  religion.  Certainly  if  there  ever  was  a  man 
who  illustrated  some  of  the  principles  of  pure  religion, 
that  man  was  our  departed  President.  Look  over  all 
his  speeches,  listen  to  his  utterances.    He  never  spoke 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  259 

unkindly  of  any  man.  Even  the  rebels  received  no 
word  of  anger  from  him,  and  his  last  day  illustrated 
in  a  remarkable  manner  his  forgiving  disposition.  A 
dispatch  was  received  that  afternoon  that  Thompson 
and  Tucker  were  trying  to  make  their  escape  through 
Maine,  and  it  was  proposed  to  arrest  them.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, however,  preferred  rather  to  let  them  quietly 
escape.  He  was  seeking  to  save  the  very  men  who  had 
been  plotting  his  destruction.  This  morning  we  read  a 
proclamation  offering  |25,000  for  the  arrest  of  these 
men  as  aiders  and  abettors  of  his  assassination;  so 
that,  in  his  expiring  acts,  he  was  saying,  "Father,  for- 
give them,  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

As  a  rulerj  I  doubt  if  any  President  has  ever  shown 
such  trust  in  God,  or  in  public  documents  so  frequently 
referred  to  Divine  aid.  Often  did  he  remark  to  friends 
and  to  delegations  that  his  hope  for  our  success  rested 
in  his  conviction  that  God  would  bless  our  efforts,  be- 
cause we  were  trying  to  do  right.  To  the  address  of 
a  large  religious  body  he  replied,  "Thanks  be  unto  God, 
who,  in  our  national  trials,  giveth  us  the  churches." 
To  a  minister  who  said  he  hoped  the  Lord  was  on  our 
side,  he  replied  that  it  gave  him  no  concern  whether 
the  Lord  was  on  our  side  or  not,  for,  he  added,  "I  know 
the  Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  right,"  and  with  deep 
feeling  added,  "But  God  is  my  witness  that  it  is  my 
constant  anxiety  and  prayer  that  both  myself  and  this 
nation  should  be  on  the  Lord's  side." 

In  his  domestic  life  he  was  exceedingly  kind  and 
affectionate.  He  was  a  devoted  husband  and  father. 
During  his  presidential  term  he  lost  his  second  son, 
Willie.  To  an  officer  of  the  army  he  said,  not  long 
since,  "Do  you  ever  find  yourself  talking  with   the 


200        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

dead  ?"  and  added,  "Since  Willie's  death  I  catch  myself 
every  day  involuntarily  talking  with  him,  as  if  he  were 
with  me."  On  his  widow,  who  is  unable  to  be  here,  I 
need  only  invoke  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  that 
she  may  be  comforted  and  sustained.  For  his  son,  who 
has  witnessed  the  exercises  of  this  hour,  all  that  I  can 
desire  is  that  the  mantle  of  his  father  may  fall  upon 
him.     [Exclamations  of  "Amen."] 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  in  the  lesson  of  the  hour 
before  we  part.  This  man,  though  he  fell  by  an  assassin, 
still  fell  under  the  permissive  hand  of  God.  He  had 
some  wise  purpose  in  allowing  him  so  to  fall.  What 
more  could  he  have  desired  of  life  for  himself?  Were 
not  his  honors  full?  There  was  no  office  to  which  he 
could  aspire.  The  popular  heart  clung  around  him 
as  around  no  other  man.  The  nations  of  the  world  had 
learned  to  honor  our  chief  magistrate.  If  rumors  of 
a  desired  alliance  with  England  be  true,  Napoleon 
trembled  when  he  heard  of  the  fall  of  Richmond,  and 
asked  what  nation  would  join  him  to  protect  him 
against  our  Government  under  the  guidance  of  such  a 
man.  His  fame  was  full,  his  work  was  done,  and  he 
sealed  his  glory  by  becoming  the  nation's  great  martyr 
for  liberty. 

He  appears  to  have  had  a  strange  presentment,  early 
in  political  life,  that  some  day  he  would  be  President. 
You  see  it  indicated  in  1839.  Of  the  slave  power  he 
said,  "Broken  by  it  I  too  may  be;  bow  to  it  I  never 
will.  The  probability  that  we  may  fail  in  the  struggle 
ought  not  to  deter  us  from  the  support  of  a  cause 
which  we  deem  to  be  just.  It  shall  not  deter  me.  If 
ever  I  feel  the  soul  within  me  elevate  and  expand  to 
those  dimensions  not  wholly  unworthy  of  its  Almighty 


BISHOP  SIMPSON  261 

architect,  it  is  when  I  contemplate  the  cause  of  my 
country,  deserted  by  all  the  world  besides,  and  I  stand- 
ing up  boldly  and  alone  and  hurling  defiance  at  her 
victorious  oppressors.  Here  without  contemplating 
consequences,  before  high  Heaven  and  in  the  face  of 
the  world,  I  swear  eternal  fidelity  to  the  just  cause, 
as  I  deem  itj  of  the  land  of  my  life,  my  liberty,  and  my 
love."  And  yet,  secretly,  he  said  to  more  than  one,  "I 
never  shall  live  out  the  four  years  of  my  term.  When 
the  rebellion  is  crushed  my  work  is  done."  So  it  was. 
He  lived  to  see  the  last  battle  fought,  and  dictate  a 
dispatch  from  the  home  of  Jefferson  Davis;  lived  till 
the  power  of  the  rebellion  was  broken ;  and  then,  hav- 
ing done  the  work  for  which  God  had  sent  him,  angels, 
I  trust,  were  sent  to  shield  him  from  one  moment  of 
pain  or  suffering,  and  to  bear  him  from  this  world  to 
the  high  and  glorious  realm  where  the  patriot  and  the 
good  shall  live  forever. 

His  career  teaches  young  men  that  every  position  of 
eminence  is  open  before  the  diligent  and  the  worthy. 
To  the  active  men  of  the  country,  his  example  is  an 
incentive  to  trust  in  God  and  do  right. 

Standing,  as  we  do  to-day,  by  his  coflBn  and  his 
sepulcher,  let  us  resolve  to  carry  forward  the  policy 
which  he  so  nobly  began.  Let  us  do  right  to  all  men. 
To  the  ambitious  there  is  this  fearful  lesson:  Of  the 
four  candidates  for  Presidential  honors  in  1860,  two 
of  them — Douglas  and  Lincoln — once  competitors,  but 
now  sleeping  patriots,  rest  from  their  labors ;  Bell  per- 
ished in  poverty  and  misery,  as  a  traitor  might  perish; 
and  Breckinridge  is  a  frightened  fugitive,  with  the 
brand  of  traitor  on  his  brow.  Let  us  vow,  in  the  sight 
of  Heaven,  to  eradicate  every  vestige  of  human  slavery ; 


262        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

to  give  every  human  being  his  true  position  before 
God  and  man ;  to  crush  every  form  of  rebellion,  and  to 
stand  by  the  flag  which  God  has  given  us.  How  joyful 
that  it  floated  over  parts  of  every  State  before  Mr. 
Lincoln's  career  was  ended!  How  singular  that,  to 
the  fact  of  the  assassin's  heels  being  caught  in  the  folds 
of  the  flag,  we  are  probably  indebted  for  his  capture! 
The  flag  and  the  traitor  must  ever  be  enemies. 

Traitors  will  probably  suffer  by  the  change  of  rulers, 
for  one  of  sterner  mold,  and  who  himself  has  deeply 
suffered  from  the  rebellion,  now  wields  the  sword  of 
justice.  Our  country,  too,  is  stronger  for  the  trial.  A 
republic  was  declared  by  monarchists  too  weak  to 
endure  a  civil  war;  yet  we  have  crushed  the  most 
gigantic  rebellion  in  history,  and  have  grown  in 
strength  and  population  every  year  of  the  struggle. 
We  have  passed  through  the  ordeal  of  a  popular  elec- 
tion while  swords  and  bayonets  were  in  the  field,  and 
have  come  out  unharmed.  And  now,  in  an  hour  of 
excitement,  with  a  large  majority  having  preferred  an- 
other man  for  President,  when  the  bullet  of  the  assassin 
has  laid  our  President  prostrate,  has  there  been  a 
mutiny?  Has  any  rival  proffered  his  claims?  Out 
of  an  army  of  near  a  million,  no  officer  or  soldier 
uttered  one  note  of  dissent,  and,  in  an  hour  or  two 
after  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  another  leader  under  con- 
stitutional forms,  occupied  his  chair,  and  the  govern- 
ment moved  forward  without  one  single  jar.  The  world 
will  learn  that  republics  are  the  strongest  governments 
on  earth. 

And  now,  my  friends,  in  the  words  of  the  departed, 
"with  malice  toward  none,"  free  from  all  feelings  of 
personal  vengeance,  yet  believing  that  the  sword  must 


V"-. 


BISHOP  SmrSON  263 

not  be  borne  in  vain,  let  us  go  forward  even  in  painful 
duty.  Let  every  man  who  was  a  senator  or  representa- 
tive in  Congress,  and  who  aided  in  beginning  this  re- 
bellion, and  thus  led  to  the  slaughter  of  our  sons  and 
daughters,  be  brought  to  speedy  and  to  certain  punish- 
ment. Let  every  officer  educated  at  the  public  expense, 
and  who,  having  been  advanced  to  position,  perjured 
himself  and  turned  his  sword  against  the  vitals  of  his 
country,  be  doomed  to  a  traitor's  death.  This,  I  believe, 
is  the  will  of  the  American  people.  Men  may  attempt 
to  compromise,  and  to  restore  these  traitors  and  mur- 
derers to  society  again.  Vainly  may  they  talk  of  the 
fancied  honor  or  chivalry  of  these  murderers  of  our 
sons — these  starvers  of  our  prisoners — these  officers 
who  mined  their  prisons  and  placed  kegs  of  powder 
to  destroy  our  captive  officers.  But  the  American  peo- 
ple will  rise  in  their  majesty  and  sweep  all  such  com- 
promises and  compromisers  away,  and  will  declare 
that  there  shall  be  no  safety  for  rebel  leaders.  But 
to  the  deluded  masses  we  will  extend  the  arms  of  for- 
giveness. We  will  take  them  to  our  hearts,  and  walk 
with  them  side  by  side,  as  we  go  forward  to  work  out 
a  glorious  destiny. 

The  time  will  come  when,  in  the  beautiful  words  of 
him  whose  lips  are  now  forever  sealed,  "the  mystic 
chords  of  memory,  which  stretch  from  every  battle- 
field, and  from  every  patriot's  grave,  shall  yield  a 
sweeter  music  when  touched  by  the  angels  of  our  better 
nature." 

Chieftain!  farewell!  The  nation  mourns  thee. 
Mothers  shall  teach  thy  name  to  their  lisping  children. 
The  youth  of  our  land  shall  emulate  thy  virtues. 
Statesmen  shall  study  thy  record  and  learn  lessons  of 


264        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

wisdom.  Mute  though  thy  lips  be,  yet  they  still  speak. 
Hushed  is  thy  voice,  but  its  echoes  of  liberty  are  ring- 
ing through  the  world,  and  the  sons  of  bondage  listen 
with  joy.  Prisoned  thou  art  in  death,  and  yet  thou  art 
marching  abroad,  and  chains  and  manacles  are  burst- 
ing at  thy  touch.  Thou  didst  fall  not  for  thyself.  The 
assassin  had  no  hate  for  thee.  Our  hearts  were  aimed 
at,  our  national  life  was  sought.  We  crown  thee  as 
our  martyr — and  humanity  enthrones  thee  as  her  tri- 
umphant son.    Hero,  Martyr,  Friend,  Farewell  ! 


ORATION 
RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.,  D.D. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

In  February,  1861 — amid  the  chills  and  sleet  of  the 
unfinished  winter,  and  while  the  gloom  of  a  prescient 
fear,  more  oppressive  than  of  any  physical  season,  over- 
shadowed the  hearts  of  the  thoughtful  and  troubled 
American  people — a  number  of  persons,  with  one 
quaint,  homely  figure  in  the  midst  of  them,  took  their 
departure  from  Springfield,  Illinois,  to  proceed  by 
gradual  stages  to  Washington.  Neighbors  and  friends 
were  hurriedly  assembled  to  witness  the  departure; 
and  a  few  simple  and  touching  words  of  greeting  and 
farewell  were  addressed  to  them  by  him  who  was  cen- 
tral in  the  group,  and  whose  kindly  face  and  earnest 
voice  had  there,  for  twenty-four  years,  been  familiar. 

Other  assemblages,  hastily  convened,  of  personal 
acquaintances  and  political  friends — with  here  and 
there  some  generous  or  curious  political  opponents — 
were  afterward  encountered,  as  the  company  proceeded 
from  city  to  city,  along  the  railways  which  then  as  now 
overlay  and  defined  their  winding  route.  At  Buffalo, 
Albany,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  at  other  points, 
men  came  together  to  see  and  hear,  some  to  welcome, 
and  some  as  well  to  criticize  or  to  warn,  the  man  to 
whom  by  the  voice  of  a  plurality  of  his  fellow  country 

265 


266       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

men,  the  conduct  of  the  government  for  four  years  to 
come  had  been  committed.  There  was  much  curiosity 
to  be  satisfied  concerning  him.  There  was  a  natural 
eagerness  to  hear  what  he  might  say,  that  involved 
any  pithy  or  pregnant  suggestion  as  to  what  his  course 
was  likely  to  be.  But  those  who  remembered  the  great 
convocations  which  in  other  years  had  greeted  the 
chieftains  in  statesmanship  as  they  made  their  progress 
through  the  country,  could  not  but  contrast,  with  the 
numbers  and  enthusiasm  of  such  previous  assemblages, 
the  meagerness  and  dullness  of  those  now  convened. 
And  when  at  last  the  tall,  uncouth,  but  dominant  figure 
which  had  been  central  in  these  assemblages,  disap- 
peared from  sight  at  the  capital  of  Pennsylvania,  to 
reappear  suddenly  in  a  hotel  at  Washington — there 
was  with  a  few  a  feeling  of  relief  that  suspense  was 
over,  and  he  was  safely  housed  at  the  capital;  there 
was  with  many  a  feeling  of  shame  that  any  such  pre- 
cautionary privacy  should  have  been  deemed  to  be 
needful,  and  that  the  small  degree  of  state  till  then 
maintained,  should  have  been  so  wholly  and  abruptly 
relinquished  before  he  had  reached  his  final  goal. 

Four  crowded  and  fateful  years  have  passed — during 
which  the  nation,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  has 
breasted  the  shock  and  tasted  the  bitterness  of  a  fierce 
civil  war;  during  which  a  half  million  of  men  have 
fallen,  dead  or  maimed,  in  skirmish  and  in  battle; 
during  which  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  households 
have  been  shrouded  in  the  gloom  that  arises  only  from 
the  grave  of  the  beloved ;  during  which  arbitrary 
measures  and  policies,  unknown  to  our  previous  his- 
tory, have  been  authorized  and  enforced;  and  during 
which  seasons  of  clamorous  expectation,  and  unjusti- 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  267 

fied  hope  have  been  followed  by  others  of  utter  despond- 
ency, and  the  passionate  reproaches  of  which  this  is 
the  parent — four  years  have  passed,  and  another  com- 
pany starts  from  Washington  to  bear  back  to  the  quiet 
and  distant  Springfield  all  that  remains  of  that  form 
now  prostrate,  that  face  and  eye  now  sealed  and  sight- 
less. 

Amid  the  shining  April  days,  while  springing  grass 
and  greening  boughs  proclaim  that  summer  draweth 
nigh,  they  leave  the  capital — which  never  before  has 
been  so  shaken  with  pain,  and  grief,  and  righteous 
rage — they  take  the  same  route  which  he  had  traversed 
when  coming  in  life  to  his  high  place^  and  bear  him 
forever  from  the  scene  of  his  eventful  sway.  And  as 
they  go,  the  great  capitals  of  the  land  welcome  with 
such  demonstrations  of  honor  as  no  preceding  experi- 
ence has  witnessed,  the  shrunken,  discolored  and  pulse- 
less frame.  The  city  through  which  he  passed  before 
in  a  sheltering  privacy,  now  crowds  tumultuous,  in 
tearful  affection,  around  his  bier.  The  great  metropolis 
— whose  mob  then  hated  him,  the  leaders  of  whose 
fashion  turned  from  him  with  contempt,  and  whose 
authorities  sought  to  insult  him — now  pours  from  every 
street  and  lane  the  intent  and  sad  procession  of  his 
mourners.  Its  whole  business  is  suspended ;  its  houses 
are  hung,  from  base  to  roof,  with  funeral  weeds;  its 
pavements  are  thronged  with  silent,  patient,  unmoving 
crowds;  its  windows  gleam  with  pallid  faces;  as 
through  the  hushed  expectant  avenues  winds,  hour  by 
hour,  while  bells  are  tolling,  and  minute-guns,  with 
measured  boom,  are  counting  the  instants,  that  vast, 
unreckoned,  unparalleled  procession. 

Not  capitals  only,  but  States  themselves  become  his 


268        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

mourners.  Churches  put  off  their  Easter  emblems,  to 
hide  pillar,  and  wall,  and  arch  in  sable  woe.  Each 
railway  is  made  a  via  Dolorosa.  The  spontaneous 
homage  of  millions  is  offered,  through  the  uncovered 
head,  the  crape,  the  wreath,  through  all  the  somber 
insignia  of  grief,  as  the  train  with  its  precious  burden 
speeds.  The  country  shrouds  its  weeping  face;  and 
all  the  blooms  of  spring  around  can  bring  no  flush  to 
its  changed  countenance;  the  song  and  sparkle,  and 
the  sweet  impulse  of  which  the  very  air  is  full,  can  stir 
no  pulse  of  gladness  or  of  hope,  while  still  that  spec- 
tacle haunts  its  gaze.  For  over  every  loyal  heart  there 
broods  a  sorrow  as  if  the  most  revered  had  fallen;  as 
if  the  shock  of  personal  bereavement  had  smitten  sepa- 
rately every  household. 

It  is  to  give  the  reason  of  this  change  that  we  are 
gathered  here  to-day.  It  is  to  tell  why  this  amazing 
contrast  appears ;  which  would  be  yet  incredible  to  us, 
if  our  eyes  had  not  seen  it,  if  freshest  memories  did 
not  to-day  remind  us  of  it. 

Nay,  not  of  this  only  must  we  give  explanation. 
When  Abraham  Lincoln  left  his  home  for  that  still 
recent  journey  to  Washington,  his  name  was  only 
known  to  his  countrymen  through  its  association  with 
late  and  local  political  discussions.  It  was  utterly 
unknown  except  as  it  appeared  on  the  ballots  of  those 
who  had  chosen  him  President,  to  the  other  civilized 
peoples  of  the  world.  And  when  their  eyes  were  unex- 
pectedly turned  to  him,  they  saw  in  him  only  a  village 
attorney,  who  had  hardly  before  been  responsibly  asso- 
ciated with  great  affairs,  whom  his  friends  believed  to 
be  honest  and  sagacious,  but  whom  his  opponents  de- 
scribed as  a  rough  rail-splitter,  of  humble  origin,  of 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  2G9 

no  early  advantages,  without  experience,  without  signal 
capacity,  and  more  remarkable  than  lor  anything  else 
for  his  fondness  for  coarse  and  pungent  jokes.  It  was 
therefore  with  a  natural  and  utter  indifference  that 
the  multitudes  heard  his  unmusical  name.  It  was  with 
a  smug  self-satisfaction  that  the  aristocratic  leaders 
of  opinion,  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  pointed 
to  the  election  of  such  a  man,  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment at  a  critical  time,  as  the  final  condemnation  of 
democratic  institutions.  And  it  was  with  a  quick 
and  rational  anxiety  that  even  educated  liberals  in 
Great  Britain  and  France  rehearsed  what  they  heard 
that  was  favorable  to  him,  and  awaited  the  first  indi- 
cations of  his  policy. 

This  was  only  four  years  ago.  And  now  from  the 
entire  civilized  world  arises  the  chorus  of  respect  for 
his  powers,  of  admiration  for  his  character,  of  horror 
and  grief  at  his  untimely  end.  No  other  American 
name  since  Washington's  has  become  so  familiar,  or 
has  won  such  esteem,  among  the  progressive  peoples  of 
Europe.  It  is  henceforth  a  name  to  charm  with,  in 
Italy  and  in  England,  on  the  boulevards  of  Paris,  in 
the  studies  of  Germany,  and  among  the  precipitous 
passes  of  the  Alps.  The  presses  and  the  men  that 
once  made  shifty  apologies  for  him,  have  honored  him 
for  years  as  one  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  world. 
Even  the  papers  which  month  after  month  insulted 
him  without  stint,  now  eagerly  applaud  his  prudence, 
his  fortitude,  his  commanding  ability.  The  English 
Punch,  whose  ridicule  was  so  bitter  that  it  seemed  to 
have  in  it  a  personal  malice,  confesses  its  error,  and 
atones  for  its  jeers  in  lofty  and  pathetic  lines.  And 
with  the  voices  of  eulogy  and  homage  rising  from  his 


270        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

still  sorrowing  countrymen — rising  not  only  from  the 
millions  he  has  ruled,  and  the  other  millions  whom  he 
has  emancipated,  but  even  from  the  impoverished 
States  over  whose  acres  his  armies  swept,  and  whose 
most  practiced  and  crafty  commanders  his  patient  wis- 
dom utterly  defeated — with  these  rise,  also,  in  kindred 
homage,  the  voices  of  all  the  intelligent  leaders  of 
opinions  and  affairs  throughout  Christendom.  Parlia- 
ments as  well  as  peoples  bring  their  tribute  to  his 
memory.  The  halls  of  national  assemblies  are  draped 
in  sad  commemoration  of  his  worth  and  of  his  death. 
And  debates  are  suspended,  and  diplomacy  waits, 
while  emperors  and  queens  clasp  hands  with  us  before 
his  bier. 

It  is  one  of  the  strangest  contrasts  in  history;  and 
it  is  of  this  contrast  as  well  as  of  the  other,  that  we 
to-day  are  to  give  explanation.  The  phenomenon  is 
astonishing.  It  demands  at  our  hands  an  adequate 
solution.    But  that  solution  it  is  not  difficult  to  find. 

A  singularly  critical  and  eminent  position,  singu- 
larly improved;  immense  and  almost  unparalleled  re- 
sponsibilities, modestly  assumed,  and  with  rare 
capacity,  and  a  rarer  patience  and  magnanimity  ful- 
filled— here  is  the  key  to  this  strangest  sequence.  The 
only  eulogy  that  need  be  pronounced  on  him  is  that 
which  sets  just  this  before  us. 

Observe  first  his  position. 

Nations  are  more  and  more  plainly  every  year  the 
grand,  organized,  almost  personal  powers,  to  whom  is 
committed  the  future  of  the  world.  With  the  steady 
advances  of  civilization,  individuals  are  comparatively 
less  influential  over  the  opinion  and  action  of  man- 
kind, except  as  they  affect  the  nation  they  are  part  of. 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  271 

But  the  nation  itself  becomes  every  year  a  mightier 
presence,  a  more  distinct,  efficient  actor,  amid  the 
system  of  allied  peoples.  And  to  those  which  fill  with 
their  institutions,  and  outline  with  their  boundaries, 
the  map  of  Christendom,  is  the  molding  of  the  destinies 
of  mankind  intrusted. 

Their  origin  is  explained,  and  shown  to  be  not  acci- 
dental, but  providential  as  we  look  at  them  from  this 
point.  Slowly  emerging,  like  the  heads  of  continents, 
from  the  waste  chaos  of  the  earlier  centuries,  each  one 
has  been  unfolded,  all  have  been  arranged,  on  an 
orderly  plan;  a  plan  that  contemplates  results  so  vast 
that  we  even  yet  can  scarcely  predict  them.  It  is  not 
topography,  climate,  soil,  it  is  not  altogether  the  kin- 
ship of  blood,  it  is  God,  in  his  eternal  wisdom,  who 
has  set  these  nations  in  their  places,  and  with  Divine 
prescience  and  patience  of  skill  has  nursed  and  nur- 
tured their  tiny  germs,  has  succored  their  growth,  and 
has  built  them  to  their  majestic  strength,  that  through 
their  final  combined  might,  his  plans  may  be  realized. 

The  same  thought  interprets  the  permanence  of  these 
nations ;  the  constantly  increasing  unity  of  each  within 
itself,  the  sharper  lines  that  discriminate  each  from 
every  other.  The  tendency  of  our  times,  with  all  the 
advance  of  individual  liberty  which  has  prominently 
marked  them,  is  not  toward  the  disintegration  of  em- 
pires, but  toward  their  more  thorough  organization, 
their  more  profound  internal  oneness.  And  while 
forms  of  government,  throughout  Europe,  for  example, 
have  been  subject  to  sudden  and  violent  mutations  dur- 
ing the  two  thirds  now  elapsed  of  the  present  century, 
it  is  a  fact  full  of  significance  that  none  of  its  great 
national  organisms  has  been  destroyed;  that  none  of 


272        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

them  has  been  seriously  changed  in  its  boundaries,  or 
impaired  in  its  strength.  The  most  important  changes 
among  them  have  been  the  increased  strength  of 
Prussia,  and  the  emerging  into  substantive  existence 
of  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  The  progress  of  free  thought 
within  their  boundaries  has  not  dissolved,  but  has  only 
developed  them.  The  progress  of  invention,  overleap- 
ing those  boundaries,  and  making  neighbors  of  distant 
peoples,  has  not  obliterated  or  even  obscured  the  his- 
toric lines  that  stand  between  them.  The  centripetal 
force  within  each  has  the  mastery;  and  in  its  more 
intimate  self-centered  coherence  each  stands  more 
clearly  apart  from  the  rest.  The  public  life  incorpor- 
ated in  it — from  whatsoever  ancestry  derived,  by 
whatsoever  influences  trained,  through  whatsoever  ex- 
periences developed,  and  in  whatsoever  legislations, 
letters,  or  arts  revealed, — maintains  its  identity,  and 
only  perfects  its  force,  and  is  prepared  always  for  a 
larger  impression  upon  the  progress  and  culture  of  the 
world. 

Yet,  while  this  development  within  each  is  going  on, 
the  equilibrium  of  all  is  only  thereby  more  firmly 
established,  and  the  relations  between  them  become 
vital  and  constant.  Diplomatic  alliances  only  tardily 
and  partly  represent  the  progress  of  their  moral  sym- 
pathies. Because  it  is  separate,  each  acts  on  the  others 
with  which  it  is  allied,  with  more  freedom,  directness, 
and  positive  force.  It  acts,  and  reacts.  It  gives,  and 
it  gathers.  It  makes  its  own  peculiar  contributions, 
of  art,  thought,  commercial  exchange,  moral  power; 
and  it  receives  those  which  are  brought  to  it  in  return. 
And  through  this  continual  reciprocity,  more  vital  than 
treaties,  more  effective  than  international  congresses, 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  273 

each  assists  the  progress  of  every  other,  and  all  work 
together,  whether  consciously  or  not,  toward  general 
results. 

Into  the  ultimate  power  of  Christendom  goes,  there- 
fore, a  force  derived  in  part  from  every  people.  The 
influence  of  each  is  made  cosmopolitan.  And  it  be- 
comes more  evident  constantly  that  not  by  individuals, 
but  by  these  nations — so  separate  yet  associated, 
always  more  unlike,  but  always  also  more  intimately 
allied — is  gradually  to  be  reared  the  world-wide  struc- 
ture of  a  universal  civilization;  that  as  the  great 
persons  of  the  continents  and  the  ages,  they  are  to 
elaborate  the  welfare  of  mankind,  and  accomplish  his 
plans  who  is  the  ruler  and  the  architect  of  all. 

There  is  nothing  that  more  clearly  sets  God  before  us 
in  the  scope  of  his  designs,  that  more  vividly  unfolds 
the  significance  of  history,  that  more  sublimely  im- 
presses on  our  thoughts  the  grandeur  of  the  times  in 
which  we  live,  than  this  view  of  nations,  as  the  ever- 
renewed  and  cooperative  workers,  whose  power  and 
patience  are  to  build  up  the  future.  The  earth  is 
illustrious,  through  their  presence  upon  it.  The  future 
is  secure,  through  the  mighty  concurrence  with  which 
they  march  toward  it.  And  the  brain  that  swings 
yonder  suns  into  systems  is  not  so  unsearchable  as 
that  which  orders  this  mighty  plan. 

And  now,  among  these  vast,  historic,  almost  personal 
powers,  it  is  not  presumptuous  or  idle  to  feel  that  this, 
of  which  we  ourselves  are  part,  is  to  have  a  special 
and  an  eminent  place.  We  feel  it  instinctively.  An 
audible  undertone  in  European  society  shows  the  world 
aware  of  it. 

Placed  on  a  continent  where  it  stands  by  itself,  and 


274        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

from  which  its  influence  passes  continually,  across  both 
oceans,  to  affect  all 'peoples  whom  commerce  reaches, 
all  tribes,  indeed,  whose  languages  are  known ;  founded 
at  the  beginning,  as  Chatham  said,  "upon  ideas  of 
liberty,"  and  prepared  by  the  very  blood  that  went  into 
it,  as  well  as  by  its  subsequent  training,  to  illustrate 
the  capacity  of  Christianized  men  to  organize  and 
maintain  a  democratic  autonomy;  with  a  vast  force 
of  thought,  will,  feeling,  faith,  of  all  that  makes  the 
intensest  moral  life  of  a  nation,  inherited  by  it,  and 
continually  nourished  by  schools,  presses,  churches, 
homes,  by  all  the  labors  it  has  had  to  perform,  and  all 
the  hopes  that  have  strengthened  its  heart — it  cannot 
be  but  that  this  nation  shall  affect  with  still  increasing 
power  the  other  civilized  peoples  of  the  earth.  In  a 
degree  it  does  this  already ;  and  when  its  energies  shall 
cease  to  be  consecrated,  as  they  hitherto  have  been, 
on  the  preparation  of  the  country  itself  for  its  habita- 
tion, and  the  swift  and  mighty  mastery  of  its  riches, 
and  on  the  fashioning  and  the  upbuilding  of  its  own 
institutions — when  the  educational  influences  that 
mold  it  shall  have  come  to  their  fruition,  and  the  spirit 
of  the  nation  shall  be  finally  formed  and  declared — it 
must  pour  abroad>  through  constant  channels,  an  in- 
finite influence. 

Either  with  distrust,  then,  anxiety,  fear,  or  with  con- 
fidence, affection,  expectation,  the  thoughtful  minds 
throughout  the  world  must  look  upon  the  people  here 
established:  whose  existence  is  so  recent,  its  develop- 
ment so  rapid,  its  history  so  remarkable,  and  whose 
future  hitherto  has  seemed  so  uncertain.  It  is  not  one 
fact,  or  another,  by  itself,  that  secures  this  interest  of 
the  civilized  world  in  our  republic.    The  whole  drift  of 


EICHAPvD  S.  STORKS,  JR.  275 

civilization  makes  it  inevitable.  For  good  or  for  evil 
there  is  here  a  power  that  must  affect  the  entire  system 
of  associated  nations  to  make  or  mar  the  future  they 
are  building.  And  yonder  ocean  may  as  easily  be 
withdrawn  from  the  sight  of  our  eyes,  the  continent 
itself  may  as  easily  be  obliterated  from  the  map  of  the 
world,  as  the  sense  of  the  connection  of  the  develop- 
ment of  this  people  with  the  destinies  of  the  race  be 
stricken  from  our  mindSj  or  from  the  general  judgment 
of  Christendom. 

When  then  a  terrific  crisis  suddenly  appeared  in  our 
public  experience — when  a  wide-sweeping  and  passion- 
ate rebellion  threatened  to  become  a  complete  revolu- 
tion, to  split  the  nation  into  fragments,  and  to  change 
the  course  of  its  development  for  ever — it  was  not 
wonderful,  it  was  only  inevitable,  that  more  than  by 
any  other  event  of  modern  times  the  thoughts  of  man- 
kind should  be  occupied  with  it;  that  here  not  only 
but  all  abroad  it  should  be  felt  that  the  palpable  leaves 
of  destiny  were  turning ;  that  forces  were  evolved  than 
which  none  others  more  portentous  had  broken  upon 
the  world  since  the  modern  nations  of  Europe  were 
born.  It  was  inevitable  that  with  diverse  hopes  and 
opposite  predictions  not  Americans  only  but  the 
peoples  of  Christendom  should  look  to  see  what  the 
issue  was  to  be. 

No  man  on  this  continent,  therefore,  since  Washing- 
ton's day,  has  had  such  room  as  was  given  to  him 
whose  death  we  mourn  to  manifest  all  of  power  and 
character  which  he  possessed;  to  manifest  this  to  the 
eyes  of  the  nation,  to  the  eyes  of  mankind.  No  other 
man  has  had  the  chance  to  so  utterly  wreck  himself, 
and  bury  his  name  in  an  absolute  ignominy,  amid  the 


276        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

sinking  fortunes  of  his  country.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  no  other  man  has  been  given  the  opportunity 
to  make  for  himself  a  place  forever  in  the  inmost  heart 
of  the  nation  which  he  saved;  to  make  for  himself  a 
worldwide  fame;  to  touch  the  centuries  still  to  come, 
and  gild  their  skies  with  higher  splendor.  And  it  is 
because  he  proved  himself  equal  to  the  critical,  provi- 
dential, unparalleled  position, — because  he  so  bore  him- 
self in  his  grand  oflBce  that  all  men  saw  him  a  man  to 
be  loved,  a  statesman  to  be  trusted,  a  patriot  to  be 
followed  through  darkest  perils  without  dismay, — 
therefore  it  is  that  eulogies  now  make  the  continents 
vocal;  that  those  eulogies  take  the  poetic  form  which 
only  intensity  of  feeling  produces ;  and  that  one  of  the 
grandest  names  of  the  world  is  to  be  henceforth,  while 
history  continues,  the  plain,  untitled,  and  recent  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

So  much  for  his  position.  Observe  now  the  personal 
character  and  power  which  he  brought  to  his  oflQce  and 
the  work  which  he  wrought  in  it.  Of  course  the  full 
exhibition  of  these  would  take  volumes,  not  para- 
graphs, and  be  the  occupation  of  mouths  of  leisure 
instead  of  a  few  hurrying  hours.  Yet  we  may  notice 
the  leading  traits,  and  recognize  briefly  the  more  prom- 
inent powers  of  mind  and  will,  by  which  he  became  so 
apt  for  his  work;  and  may  glance,  at  least,  at  the 
principal  features  of  the  great  work  itself. 

It  is  an  impulse  of  the  heart  with  every  one  who 
speaks  of  him  to  delineate  first  his  moral  properties; 
and  though  these  may  be  dwelt  upon  so  exclusively  as 
to  seem  to  involv^e  an  injurious  forgetfulness  of  the 
great  intellectual  abilities  he  possessed,  yet  the  course 
of  discussion  thus  suggested  is  the  one  which  every  one 


RICHARD  S.  STORKS,  JR.  277 

still  must  take  if  he  would  not  violently  constrain  and 
divert  his  own  mental  processes;  if  he  would  not  re- 
pulse the  public  heart.  The  moral,  which  should  be 
supreme  in  every  man,  was  so,  to  a  degree  almost  un- 
exampled, in  President  Lincoln.  It  made  the  prime 
impression  of  the  man  on  those  who  approached  him. 
It  shines  most  prominently  before  us  to-day,  through- 
out that  crowded  and  turbulent  history  along  whose 
dizzy  paths  he  has  led  us.  It  will  be  spoken  of  first 
and  most  fondly  wherever  future  American  parents 
repeat  his  sayings,  rehearse  his  traits,  and  tell  to  their 
children  the  story  of  his  career.  Of  this  then,  first,  we 
may,  and  we  must,  with  propriety  speak. 

And  yet  it  is  impossible  to  speak  of  it  as  we  would, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  comprise  in  words  that 
subtile,  essential  spirit  of  character,  which  was  para- 
mount in  him;  and  because — when  we  analyze,  as  we 
say,  such  a  character,  and  distribute  its  single  though 
complex  beauty,  into  the  traits  which  made  it  up — it 
is  like  fracturing  the  diamond  to  exhibit  it;  it  is  like 
unbraiding  the  strand  of  light,  to  show  the  sunbeam's 
inmost  splendor.  So  far,  however,  as  any  formula  can 
express  what  must,  by  virtue  of  its  spiritual  nature, 
elude  the  grasp  and  surpass  the  compass  of  verbal 
propositions,  it  may  be  said  that  a  deep>  unselfish 
sympathy  with  men,  a  profound  conviction  of  the  va- 
lidity and  authority  of  certain  great  principles  of  equity 
and  liberty,  and  an  abiding  personal  faith  in  the  over- 
ruling providence  of  God,  were  the  principal  and  per- 
manent constituent  forces  in  the  character  which  he 
showed. 

The  genesis  of  this,  the  influences  by  which  it  was 
rooted  and  formed  in  him,   it  must  be  left  to  the 


278        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

biographer  to  unfold.  The  character  itself,  which  these 
elements  composed,  is  as  distinct  as  it  is  also  great; 
and  the  memory  of  it  will  live  forever. 

Wholly  individual,  utterly  genuine — so  independent 
of  outward  circumstances  that  obscurity  had  not  at 
all  embittered  it,  and  investiture  with  the  vast  pre- 
rogatives of  oflSce  only  gave  it  new  development, 
through  immenser  opportunities — it  was  the  essential 
moral  force  on  which  the  nation  for  four  years  hung, 
as  on  a  very  power  of  nature;  from  which,  more  than 
from  'anything  else,  it  has  drawn  its  present  stability 
and  hope ;  and  by  reason  of  which  the  death  of  him  in 
whom  it  was  revealed  has  thrilled  with  new  and 
strange  emotion  the  civilized  world. 

His  sympathy  with  men  was  shown  not  only  in  his 
singularly  warm  personal  attachments,  to  his  family 
and  his  friends,  to  all  who  for  any  considerable  time 
were  confidentially  associated  with  him ;  it  was  shown 
as  well  in  that  kindness  to  the  poor,  the  sorrowful,  the 
imperiled,  with  instances  of  which  the  journals  of  the 
country,  for  four  years  past,  have  been  running  over. 
The  wearied,  sick,  or  wounded  soldier,  found  always  a 
friend  in  him  as  solicitous  for  his  welfare  as  if  he  had 
been  his  kinsman  by  birth.  The  little  children  in  the 
Home  for  the  Destitute  were  touched  by  the  tearful 
tenderness  and  dignity,  the  instructive  clearness,  and 
the  quickening  playfulness,  with  which  he  addressed 
them.  The  poor  freed  people — who  had  escaped  from 
the  slavery  through  which  his  armies  crushed  their 
way,  but  had  escaped  to  communities  that  seemed  less 
friendly  than  those  they  had  left,  and  had  passed  from 
a  bondage  which  at  least  had  given  them  shelter  and 
food,  to  a  liberty  that  threatened  to  doom  to  idleness, 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  279 

and  to  overwhelm  them  in  an  absolute  want — it  was 
not  with  ostentatious  charity,  it  was  with  no  splendid 
philanthropical  theory,  it  was  with  a  tender  welcom- 
ing respect,  that  he  heard  their  story,  examined  their 
condition,  and  opened  the  way  for  escape  from  their 
fears. 

After  four  years  of  incessant,  bloody,  desperate 
struggle,  he  entered  Richmond,  with  characteristic  un- 
ostentation, — not  at  the  head  of  marshaled  armies, 
with  banners  advanced  and  trumpets  sounding,  but  as 
a  private  gentleman,  on  foot,  with  an  officer  on  one 
side,  holding  the  hand  of  his  boy  on  the  other.  An 
aged  negro  met  him  on  the  street,  and  said — with  the 
tears  streaming  down  his  face,  as  he  bowed  low  his 
uncovered  head — "God  bless  you,  Massa  Lincoln !"  The 
President  paused,  raised  his  hat  on  the  instant,  and 
with  a  hearty  "I  thank  you,  sir,"  acknowledged  with  a 
bow  the  greeting.  Instinctively  he  recognized  the 
poorest  as  his  peer,  and  the  black  man  as  his  brother. 

On  each  of  two  days  in  all  his  brief  and  burdened 
weeks,  he  gave  some  hours  to  receiving  the  petitions  of 
those  who  sought  from  him  any  personal  favor.  He 
took  upon  himself,  with  glad  alacrity,  the  labor  of 
investigating  claims  for  relief  which  had  been  always 
under  other  administrations,  which  should  have  been 
under  his,  referred  at  once  to  subordinate  officers.  He 
did  it  because  he  could  not  help  it.  His  nature  de- 
manded it ;  and  that  nature  could  not  be  expelled  with 
a  pitchfork.  No  trophies  won  by  legislators  or  gener- 
als, ever  disturbed,  for  the  tenth  of  a  minute,  his 
healthful  slumbers.  But  the  mere  recollection  of  a  case 
of  suffering  which  he  had  not  relieved,  of  an  instance 
of  anxiety  which  he  had  not  soothed  as  quickly  as  he 


280        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

might,  would  keep  him  tossing  for  many  hours  on  an 
unrestful  bed.  And  it  was  not  a  burden,  but  always  a 
relief  to  him,  to  turn  from  emiuert  i)ublic  affairs  to 
talk  with  the  poor  who  sought  his  aid,  and  to  bind  up 
with  assiduous  skill  the  wounds  of  the  sorrowful. 

The  same  spirit  was  revealed,  in  a  more  unique 
exhibition,  in  his  sympathetic  regard  for  his  opi^ouents. 
He  laughed  at  the  jokes  which  were  made  about  him- 
self; was  tolerant,  to  a  degree  before  unexampled,  of 
attacks  on  his  policy;  and  never  took  a  particle  of 
venom  into  his  nature  from  all  the  virulent  assaults 
that  were  made  on  him.  While  holding  tenaciously  to 
his  own  views  and  plans,  he  never  failed  to  do  generous 
justice  to  the  reasons  and  the  motives  of  those  who 
combatted  them;  to  recognize  in  them  wherever  he 
could,  and  sometimes  where  none  of  his  colleagues 
could,  a  patriotism  as  genuine  as  his  own,  and  a  pur- 
pose as  true  to  secure  and  to  promote  the  general 
welfare.  He  talked  with,  reasoned  with,  wrote  to  them, 
in  this  spirit;  was  not  moved  from  his  position  of 
friendliness  toward  them  by  their  misconception  or 
their  abuse;  and  never  could  believe  them  traitorous 
in  their  hearts  till  the  overt  act  had  compelled  him  to 
see  it. 

Toward  even  those  who  had  dangerously  offended 
against  the  laws,  he  hardly  could  bring  himself  to 
adopt  any  course  save  one  of  the  utmost  clemency  and 
gentleness.  He  pardoned  with  so  much  eagerness  that 
one  of  his  own  cabinet  officers  declared  that  the  power 
of  pardoning  should  be  taken  from  him.  The  military 
discipline  of  the  army  itself  was  more  than  once  in 
danger  of  decay,  through  his  inability  to  order  the  final 
penalties  inflicted  on  those  who  had  incurred  them; 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  281 

and  spies  and  traitors  within  the  capital  were  shielded, 
more  than  was  easily  reconciled  with  the  safety  of  the 
Government,  by  his  unwillingness  to  have  them  sub- 
jected to  any  harsh  measures. 

Of  course  his  sensibilities  came  gradually  to  be  under 
the  control  of  his  judgment,  while  the  counsels  of 
others  constrained  him  sometimes  to  a  severity  which 
he  hated;  so  that  at  length  the  order  for  the  merited 
restraint  or  punishment  of  public  offenders  was  fre- 
quently, though  always  reluctantly,  ratified  by  him. 
But  his  sympathy  with  men  in  whatever  condition,  of 
whatever  opinions,  in  whatsoever  wrongs  involved,  was 
so  native  and  constant,  and  so  controlling,  that  he 
was  always  not  so  much  inclined  as  predetermined  to 
the  mildest  and  most  generous  theory  possible.  And 
something  of  peril,  as  well  as  of  promise,  was  involved 
to  the  public  in  this  element  of  his  nature. 

He  would  not  admit  that  he  was  in  danger  of  the  very 
assassination  by  which  at  last  his  life  was  taken,  and 
only  yielded  with  a  protest  to  the  precautions  which 
others  felt  bound  to  take  for  him;  because  his  own 
sympathy  with  men  was  so  strong  that  he  could  not  be- 
lieve that  any  would  meditate  serious  harm  to  him. 
The  public  policy  of  his  administration  was  constantly 
in  danger  of  being  too  tardy,  lenient,  pacific,  toward 
those  who  were  combined  for  deadly  battle  against 
the  Government^  because  he  was  so  solicitous  to  win, 
so  anxious  to  bless,  and  so  reluctant  sharply  to  strike. 
Sic  semper  tyrannis,  shouted  his  wild,  theatric  assassin, 
as  he  leaped  upon  the  stage : — making  the  ancient  motto 
of  Virginia  a  legend  of  shame  for  evermore.  But  no 
magistrate  ever  lived  who  had  less  of  the  tyrant  in  his 
natural  or  his  habitual  temper.    In  all  the  veins  of  all 


282        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

his  frame  no  drop  of  unsympathetic  blood  found  a 
channel.  When  retaliation  seemed  the  only  just  policy 
for  the  Government  to  adopt,  to  save  its  soldiers  from 
being  shot  in  cold  blood,  or  being  starved  into  idiocy, 
it  was  simply  impossible  for  him  to  accept  it.  And  if 
he  had  met  the  arch  conspirators  face  to  face, — those 
who  had  racked  and  really  enlarged  the  English  vocab- 
ulary to  get  terms  to  express  their  hatred  and  disgust 
toward  him  individually,  those  who  were  striking  with 
desperate  blows  at  the  national  existence, — it  would 
have  been  hard  for  him  not  to  greet  them  with  open 
hand  and  a  kindly  welcome. 

The  very  element  of  sadness,  which  was  so  inwrought 
with  his  mirthfulness  and  humor,  and  which  will  look 
out  on  coming  generations  through  the  pensive  lines 
upon  his  face,  and  the  light  of  his  pathetic  eyes,  came 
into  his  spirit,  or  was  constantly  renewed  there, 
through  his  sympathy  with  men,  especially  with  the 
oppressed  and  the  poor.  He  took  upon  himself  the 
sorrows  of  others.  He  bent  in  extremest  personal 
sufifering  under  the  blows  that  fell  on  his  countrymen. 
And  when  the  bloody  rain  of  battle  was  sprinkling  the 
trees  and  the  sod  of  Virginia,  during  successive  dreary 
campaigns,  his  inmost  soul  felt  the  baptism  of  it,  and 
was  sickened  with  grief.  'T  cannot  bear  it — I  cannot 
bear  it," — he  said  more  than  once,  as  the  story  was 
told  him  of  the  sacrifice  required  to  secure  some  result. 
No  glow,  even  of  triumph,  could  expel  from  his  eyes 
the  tears  occasioned  by  the  suffering  that  had  brought 
it. 

And  yet,  through  this  native  sympathy  with  men  he 
gained  a  large  part  of  his  immense  power  over  his 
country  and  his  times.    From  it  in  part  came,  no  doubt. 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  283 

the  sublime  temperateness  of  his  spirit.  He  lived  in 
times  when  a  man  without  this  must  now  and  then 
have  flamed  into  passion  at  the  arrogant  ferocity  that 
taunted  and  smote  him.  But  no  man  remembers  an 
hour  in  his  life  when  passion  made  his  accents  tremble. 
He  hated  slavery  with  a  lifelong  abhorrence,  and 
wrestled  with  it  four  fierce  years  in  deadly  grapple; 
and  many  men,  not  hating  it  more,  not  feeling  it  so 
much,  had  come,  not  unnaturally,  to  transfer  to  persons 
their  wrath  against  the  system,  and  had  become  em- 
bittered through  their  just  indignation.  He  kept  the 
utter  sweetness  of  his  spirit,  as  if  he  had  been  a  child 
by  the  fireside.  His  blood  was  not  heated  in  the 
desperate  struggle ;  and  even  conscience  offended  could 
not  make  him  acrimonious. 

He  gained  another  power  through  this  sympathy 
with  men.  Not  only  by  it  did  he  come  to  be  endeared, 
so  as  no  President  preceding  him  had  been,  to  the 
universal  heart  of  the  nation,  to  its  women  and  chil- 
dren, as  well  as  its  men;  not  only  did  its  rare  vital 
force  surpass  our  boundaries,  and  make  the  humble 
abroad  his  friends; — he  came,  by  virtue  of  it  in  great 
measure,  to  be  the  representative  man  of  the  people. 
It  brought  him  into  spontaneous  correspondence  with 
the  average  thought  and  feeling  of  the  country.  He 
did  not  depend  on  witnesses  and  counselors.  He  "knew 
in  himself"  what  the  "plain  people"  wanted,  whom  he 
honored  and  believed  in,  to  whose  ranks  he  expected 
soon  to  return,  and  who,  as  he  said,  were  willing  and 
able  to  save  the  Government,  if  the  Government  would 
do  its  part  indifferently  well. 

Through  a  process  imperceptible  to  himself,  no 
doubt,  in  its  methods  and  modes,  but  natural  to  his 


284        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

sympathetic  constitution,  he  came  to  dwell  in  such 
accord  with  the  public — not  with  any  one  party,  or 
anv  one  set  of  leaders  and  thinkers,  but  with  the  col- 
lective  spirit  of  the  nation — that  when  he  spoke  it  felt 
its  thought  articulated  through  him ;  and  his  ultimate 
decision,  on  almost  any  question,  announced  and  sealed 
the  public  judgment. 

The  independence  of  his  policy  had  its  origin  here. 
He  was  always  ready  to  hear  and  consider  any  opinion. 
The  most  conservative,  the  most  violently  radical,  were 
equally  at  home  with  him.  Yet  the  eloquent  or  in- 
genious advocates  of  a  theory  often  found,  to  their 
surprise,  that  they  had  less  influence  over  his  counsels 
than  over  those  of  men  whom  they  thought  his 
superiors.  The  truth  is,  the  entire  public  was  his 
teacher.  His  nature  drew,  through  secret  ducts,  the 
wisdom  of  the  nation  into  itself;  and  the  roots  of  his 
matured  opinions  were  as  wide  as  the  country. 

His  policy  was  plastic,  too,  and  legitimately  pro- 
gressive, as  well  as  independent;  because  it  repre- 
sented, in  successive  stages,  the  popular  mind.  And 
where  any  man  with  a  fixed  and  inflexible  personal 
theory,  which  he  must  carry  out,  would  inevitably  have 
found  it  too  narrow  and  rigid  to  encompass  the  crisis, 
and  would  have  seen  it  hopelessly  shattered  in  the 
progress  of  events,  his  policy  was  modified  and  ex- 
panded with  time,  because  he  kept  abreast  with  the 
people  he  ruled.  He  carried  their  purpose  and  thought 
in  himself.  He  grew  with  their  growth,  and  shared  in 
their  advancing  wisdom ;  and  so,  to  the  end,  his  plans 
were  elastic,  and  the  nation  gave,  to  realize  those  plans 
— which  did  but  incorporate  its  wisest  opinions — its 
whole  tremendous  and  unreserved  power. 


RICHARD  S.  8T0RRS,  JR.  285 

But  with  this  element  of  sympathy  with  men  we 
must  combine,  in  inseparable  union,  the  others  I  have 
named,  to  get  an  adequate  impression  of  his  character : 
He  had  a  profound  and  enduring  conviction  of  the  value 
and  authority  of  certain  great  principles  of  equity  and 
of  liberty ;  while  nothing  was  more  vital  or  positive  in 
him  than  his  faitn  in  the  rule  and  the  providence  of 
God.  From  these  elements  his  character  took  firm- 
ness, greatness,  an  individual  force  and  majesty.  He 
was  kept  from  becoming  a  mere  sensitive  exponent  of 
the  popular  feeling,  and  became  instead  a  noble  chief 
magistrate,  instructed  by  all,  yet  more  instructing 
them  in  return. 

They  who  thought  him  only  a  shrewd  politician 
were  singularly  mistaken.  He  was  that,  no  doubt ;  but 
history  will  rank  him  also  among  our  most  philo- 
sophical statesmen.  The  great  ethical  principles  which, 
though  invisible,  are  primitive,  organific,  in  our  na- 
tional development,  by  which  our  history  has  been 
vitally  molded,  and  through  which  that  history  becomes 
important  to  the  world — these  had  to  him  essential 
reality,  and  incomparable  value.  His  love  for  the  very 
system  of  government  of  which  he  became  the  grand 
defender,  had  its  origin  in  its  relation  to  these  prin- 
ciples; its  actual  approximate  correspondence  with 
them;  its  capacity  to  be  shaped  to  express  them  more 
perfectly ;  its  fitness  and  power  to  extend  them.  With- 
out rhythm  in  his  sentences,  or  any  taste  for  esthetic 
art,  the  ideal  in  the  State  moved  him  more  than  the 
material,  and  was  always  an  educating  presence  to  his 
mind. 

Sprung  from  the  soil,  a  child  of  the  teeming  and 
wealthy  West,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  the 


286        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

mere  physical  greatness  of  the  country  would  have 
allured  and  toned  his  thought;  that  its  vast  expanse, 
with  its  prodigal  progress  in  wealth,  population,  and 
all  resources,  would  have  been  to  him,  as  they  had  been 
to  many  others  of  our  statesmen,  both  from  the  East 
and  from  the  West,  the  occasion  of  his  grateful  and 
proud  admiration.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  seems 
hardly  to  have  thought  of  them.  He  took  them  for 
granted;  only  casually  referred  to  them;  and  was 
scarcely  sustained  or  moved  in  his  work  by  any  con- 
siderations derived  from  them.  The  effort  of  the  con- 
spirators in  league  against  the  Government  to  wrench 
apart  what  God  had  bolted  together  with  mountains, 
and  had  laced  inextricably  into  one  by  the  marvelous 
system  of  Western  rivers, — their  effort  to  sever  the 
national  domain,  and  to  build  two  empires  where 
climate,  race,  topography,  language,  combined  to  de- 
mand that  there  should  be  but  one, — this  does  not 
seem  to  have  roused  him  against  it.  So  far  as  appears 
he  never  was  stirred  by  the  natural  and  not  unlaudable 
ambition  to  have  the  country  remain  as  of  old,  sur- 
passing others  in  its  physical  extent,  and  outshining 
them  with  its  more  splendid  treasures. 

But  the  principles  involved  in  the  national  institu- 
tions were  to  him  inexpressibly  sacred  and  dear;  and 
against  the  warfare  made  upon  these,  on  behalf  of  an 
ambition  which  instinctively  hated  them,  he  set  his 
kindly  face  like  a  flint.  Even  the  historic  recollections 
of  the  nation  were  chiefly  important  or  significant  to 
him  as  connected  with  these  principles;  and  the  moral 
unity  derived  from  these  was  that  which  in  his  thought 
knit  the  present  to  the  past,  and  made  our  diverse 
peoples  one.    So  he  said  at  the  West,  in  1858,  of  the 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  287 

Germans,  Irishmen,  Frenchmen,  Scandinavians,  who 
have  come  here  since  the  war  of  Independence:  "If 
they  look  back  through  our  history  to  trace  their  con- 
nection with  those  days  of  blood,  they  find  they  have 
none;  they  cannot  carry  themselves  back  into  that 
glorious  epoch,  and  make  themselves  feel  that  they  are 
part  of  us.  But  when  they  look  through  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  they  find  that  these  old  men  say 
that  'we  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all 
men  are  created  equal';  and  then  they  feel  that  that 
moral  sentiment,  taught  in  that  day,  evidences  their 
relation  to  these  men ;  that  it  is  the  father  of  all  moral 
principle  in  them ;  and  that  they  have  a  right  to  claim 
it,  as  though  they  were  blood  of  the  blood,  and  flesh  of 
the  flesh,  of  the  men  who  wrote  that  declaration.  And 
so  they  have.  That  is  the  electric  cord  that  links  the 
hearts  of  patriotic  and  liberty-loving  men  together; 
that  will  link  those  patriotic  hearts  as  long  as  the 
love  of  freedom  exists  in  the  minds  of  men." 

So  he  said  afterward,  in  1861,  substantially  at  Tren- 
ton, and  more  fully  at  Philadelphia:  "It  was  not  the 
mere  matter  of  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the 
motherland,  but  it  was  that  sentiment  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to 
the  people  of  this  country,  but  I  hope  to  the  world,  for 
all  future  time.  It  was  that  which  promised  that  in 
due  time  the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders 
of  all  men"; — adding,  with  what  now  looks  like  pre- 
science, "If  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving 
up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say,  I  would  rather 
be  assassinated  on  this  spot  than  surrender  it." 

From  this  conviction  of  the  essential  authority  and 
value,  and  the  enduring  cosmical  importance,  of  the 


288       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

principles  he  maintained,  came  in  part,  no  donbt,  his 
singular  freedom  from  personal  assumption,  from  all 
personal  greed  for  pleasure  or  gain.  He  was  called  by 
one  who  knew  him  well,  "the  honestest  man  he  had 
ever  known" ;  and  certainly  no  man's  pecuniary  honesty 
has  been  tested  more  thoroughly — with  uncounted  mil- 
lions at  his  command,  and  a  secret  service,  responsible 
to  him,  which  swallowed  gold  as  thirsty  sands  soak  up 
the  rain.  But  his  honesty  was  not  a  separate  trait, 
set  mechanically  into  his  nature,  and  governing  what 
was  alien  to  it.  It  was  a  part,  living  and  inseparable, 
of  his  conscientious  and  ingenuous  mind.  He  believed 
in  the  right,  for  himself  and  for  others.  Its  rules  were 
clear  to  him,  its  authority  perfect;  and  it  governed 
him  in  small  things  as  well  as  in  the  greatest. 

From  this  came  also  his  singular  patience,  and  his 
unwearied  courage,  in  regard  to  the  issue  of  the  ter- 
rible contest.  Sadly  as  he  felt  the  sacrifice  it  involved, 
inclined  as  he  was  to  distrust  himself,  and  knowing 
as  none  beside  could  know  with  what  manifold  perils 
the  cause  was  beset,  he  seems  never  to  have  doubted  the 
final  result.  The  mind  of  the  public,  fixed  chiefly  on 
the  visible  forces  engaged,  wavered  often,  sometimes 
violently  oscillated,  between  the  utmost  confidence  of 
success  and  the  most  extreme  depression  and  fear.  He 
held  with  marvelous  steadiness  on  his  way;  never  ex- 
asperated, never  over-elated,  yet  always  expecting  sure 
victory  in  the  end,  if  it  took  a  lifetime  to  attain  it; 
because  his  hold  on  the  principles  involved  was  utterly 
infrangible,  and  their  ultimate  victory  he  believed  to 
be  certain.  He  saw  the  Divine  forces  which,  all  un- 
heard by  mortal  ear,  were  still  contending  on  our  side; 
and  he  knew  that  till  Christianity  went  down,  slavery 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  289 

could  not  succeed  against  liberty.  The  "rapture  of 
battle"  he  never  felt.  The  "courage  of  conscience"  he 
always  knew ;  and  the  key  to  all  his  policy  is  found  in 
one  sentence  of  one  of  his  speeches,  before  he  was 
President :  "Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might ; 
and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty 
as  we  understand  it." 

The  same  element  in  his  character,  the  same  un- 
swerving confidence  in  principles,  gave  a  true  moral 
unity  to  his  administration.  It  imparted  a  certain 
philosophical  tone,  almost  a  religious,  to  much  of  his 
statesmanship;  a  tone  most  emphatic  in  his  latest 
address.  A  latent  enthusiasm  was  bred  in  him  by  it; 
an  enthusiasm  that  rarely  was  wrought  into  utterance, 
but  that  kept  all  his  powers  in  most  complete  exercise, 
while  it  sometimes  made  his  sentences  throb  with  its 
inward  fervor.  He  became,  in  some  sense,  to  his  own 
consciousness,  a  consecrated  man ;  consecrated  to  the 
championship  of  principles  of  government,  "by  which," 
as  he  said,  "the  republic  lives  and  keeps  alive,"  and  in 
which  the  whole  human  race  has  a  stake.  Hence  came 
the  undertone  that  thrilled  through  his  short  address 
at  Gettysburg,  which  is  more  henceforth  to  the  Amer- 
ican people  than  the  stateliest  oration  preserved  in  its 
archives.  Hence  came,  in  part,  the  tranquillity  and  the 
scope  of  his  high-leveled  policy.  It  was  to  himself  an 
inspiration;  while  it  gave  him  a  power  over  the  en- 
lightened reason  of  the  people  which  no  other  President 
since  Washington  has  had. 

With  this  came  also,  in  intimate  agreement,  that 
sense  of  the  presence  and  providence  of  God,  which 
seems  never  to  have  wavered,  from  the  time  when  he 
went  forth  from  Springfield  for  Washington,  asking 


290        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  friends  whom  he  left  to  pray  for  him,  till  the  time 
when  he  said,  in  his  latest  address,  "As  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  the  judg- 
ments of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 
Without  the  least  taint  of  fanaticism,  his  belief  in 
God's  regard  for  the  principles  which  he  was  defending 
was  so  earnest  and  constant,  and  at  last  so  devout,  that 
the  whole  long  war  became  to  him  a  sacred  war.  He 
recognized  the  guidance  of  Providence  throughout  it, 
in  our  reverses  as  well  as  our  successes,  and  saw  the 
forecast  that  had  shaped  it.  Reverently,  practically, 
he  felt  himself  but  an  instrument  in  God's  hand;  and 
knew  that  when  the  Divine  consummation  had  been 
attained,  the  mystic  and  awful  tragedy  would  be  over. 
"Let  us  be  quite  sober,"  he  said;  "let  us  diligently 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a  just  God,  in 
his  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result." 

Hence  came  the  crown  of  dignity  on  the  character  in 
which  sympathy  with  men,  and  conscientious  fidelity  to 
principles,  had  been  before  so  intimately  blended.  No 
man  can  be  morally  great  whose  soul  does  not  rest  on 
God  as  its  center,  and  does  not  draw  from  communion 
with  him  its  inmost  life.  Especially  when  the  leader 
in  great  affairs  stands  face  to  face  with  the  possible 
speedy  wreck  of  his  country, — when  he  treads  a  path 
all  hidden  and  perilous,  without  precedent  to  govern, 
or  parallel  to  direct  him,  and  sees  the  contracting 
horizon  around  shot  through  with  blood,  and  all  aflame, 
— the  only  thing  to  keep  him  stanch,  serene,  clear- 
visioned,  is  trust  in  the  Highest.  It  was  the  life  within 
his  life  to  him  whom  we  mourn.  Not  uttering  itself  in 
any  set  phrase,  not  prompting  much  to  religious  cere- 
monial, it  gave  him  a  steadiness  almost  invincible.    It 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  291 

made  him  expectant  of  a  future  as  grand  as  the  way 
that  led  to  it  was  bloody  and  dark.  It  united  his  soul 
with  all  that  was  highest  in  the  heart  and  conscience  of 
the  people  which  he  ruled. 

It  was  this  alone  which  enabled  him  to  say,  in  clos- 
ing his  second  inaugural  address,  in  words  that  illus- 
trate the  whole  character  of  the  man,  and  that  will 
live  while  the  language  in  which  they  were  uttered 
endures:  "With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on,  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ; 
to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who 
shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his 
orphans ;  to  do  all  which  we  may  to  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with 
all  nations." 

Combine  now,  with  all  these  loftier  elements,  a 
natural  mirthfulness  that  was  constant,  exuberant, 
that  sparkled  into  jest  and  story,  and  kept  his  facul- 
ties always  fresh; — remember  that  these  so  various 
traits  were  melted  together  into  a  character  utterly 
simple,  utterly  personal,  in  which  was  nothing  copied 
from  antique  models,  and  nothing  imported  from 
foreign  examples,  which  was  wholly  an  American  prod- 
uct, born  of  the  influences  that  had  molded  his  youth, 
and  nourished  by  the  woods,  the  riverj  and  the  prairie, 
as  modern  as  the  West,  and  as  native  as  its  oaks; — 
remember  that  through  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the 
times  this  character  daily  radiated  influence,  in  some 
quaint  word  or  comic  story,  so  that  all  saw  the  identity 
of  it,  and  felt  that,  as  was  said  of  him  once,  "if  he  were 
passed  through  all  the  hoppers  in  the  universe,  and 
ground  into  dust  a  million  times,  when  put  together 


292        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

again  at  the  end  he  would  come  out  simply  Abraham 
Lincoln";  and  then  remember  that  what  the  country 
needed  and  craved,  a  thousand  times  more  than  splen- 
did talents,  was  such  thorough  and  permanent  good- 
ness in  its  head,  honesty,  fidelity,  patience,  magnanim- 
ity, and  an  unsuspicioned  integrity  of  purpose, — and 
you  have  in  part  the  explanation  of  that  prodigious 
hold  which  he  gained  on  the  country  which  he  ruled, 
and  on  the  world  which  watched  that  country. 

The  magnetism  that  held  the  nation  steadfastly  to 
him  had  here  its  vital  source  and  seat.  He  made 
mistakes;  men  did  not  defend,  did  not  feel  it  very 
necessary  to  apologize  for  them.  He  was  not  omnis- 
cient, and  his  judgment  might  sometimes  be  in  error. 
But  his  character  was  what  the  people  wanted;  too 
lenient,  sometimes,  but  kindly,  tolerant,  patient,  al- 
ways; without  a  trace  of  arrogance  or  of  passion;  as 
little  imperious  as  the  air  or  the  sunshine;  as  little 
likely  to  be  crazed  with  ambition  as  the  clouds,  from 
which  drop  the  showers  of  spring,  to  distill  their  kindly 
dews  into  venom.  And  a  character  like  this  was  in- 
comparably more  to  the  imperiled  and  anxious  people 
than  the  utmost  ability  without  it  would  have  been. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  moral  genius ; — a  temper  so 
wholly  individual  and  original,  so  vitally  compact  of 
various  excellencies,  and  so  alive  with  personal  force, 
that  it  sustains  and  attracts  more  than  do  splendid 
intellectual  powers.  And  it  was  this  moral  genius 
which  America  wanted,  which  he  supplied.  By  virtue 
of  it,  he  seemed  to  fill  the  land  with  his  example.  He 
incarnated  not  only,  but  instructed  and  inspired,  the 
temper  of  the  people ;  till  it  had  more  confidence  in  him 
than  it  had  in  itself.     Amid  arbitrary  arrests,  and 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  293 

damaging  defeats,  its  trust  in  his  temper  never  yielded. 
"His  very  mistakes,"  as  one  has  said,  "became  omnipo- 
tent." For,  through  the  whole  of  his  strange  term  of 
oflSce — after  the  nation  had  come  to  know  him — it  was 
a  source  to  it  of  central  joy  that  one  so  faithful, 
sympathetic,  conscientious,  was  supreme  in  the  gov- 
ernment; that  a  will  so  earnestly  trustful  in  Provi- 
dence was  guiding  the  forces  which  Providence  had 
evolved;  that  hands  so  pure  had  been  found  to  bear, 
across  the  stony  wilderness  of  fear,  and  through  the 
mounting  seas  of  blood,  the  civil  constitution,  which  is 
to  the  republic  its  consecrated  ark. 

But  character  alone,  even  one  so  original  and  so 
eminent  as  his,  could  never  explain  the  singular  place 
attained  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  respect  of  the  country 
and  the  world;  could  never  wholly  account  for  the 
work  which  he  accomplished.  Intellectual  power, 
executive  faculty,  a  large  capacity  for  skillful  and 
laborious  administration,  are  also  implied  in  such 
mastership  as  his;  and  aside  from  these,  amid  such 
times  as  ours  have  been,  he  must  have  proved  a  simple 
drift  log  on  the  current,  unable  to  govern  it,  only  rush- 
ing with  it  toward  the  abyss.  As  we  turn,  then,  to 
consider  his  nature  in  this  view,  we  shall  find,  I  think, 
that  a  remarkable  faculty  for  exact  and  discriminating 
thought  was  combined  in  him  with  immense  common 
sense,  and  great  practical  sagacity;  while  his  execu- 
tive force  was  imparted  by  a  will  yielding  in  small 
things,  but  tenacious  in  great,  and  capable  of  long 
continued  exertion. 

These  were  the  instruments  through  which  his  patient 
spirit  wrought  to  its  great  issues.  They  made  the 
force,  not  splendid,  but  practical  and  effective,  which 


294        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

took  from  his  character  "the  consecration  and  the 
gleam,"  and  of  which  that  which  we  have  derived  from 
him  is  the  permanent  fruit. 

The  exact  and  incisive 'habit  of  his  mind  was  con- 
stantly shown  in  his  papers  and  speeches,  and  even  in 
his  unstudied  utterances.  His  jests  were  always  more 
remarkable  than  for  anything  else  for  their  absolute 
fitness  to  the  point  illustrated.  The  fun  that  was  in 
them,  even  when  it  was  coarse,  was  weighted  with 
meaning,  and  edged  with  sharp  thought.  They  were, 
what  Lord  Bacon  says  proverbs  are — "the  edge-tools 
of  speech,  which  cut  and  penetrate  the  knots  of 
affairs."  His  discriminations  were  always  accurate; 
and  no  sophistry  could  stand  before  the  fire  of  his 
analysis. 

Where  has  the  essential  unwisdom  of  secession,  even 
supposing  it  wholly  successful,  ever  been  more  suc- 
cinctly exposed  than  it  was  by  him  in  his  first 
inaugural:  "Physically  speaking  we  cannot  separate. 
We  cannot  remove  our  respective  sections  from  each 
other,  nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  .  .  . 
Is  it  possible,  then,  to  make  our  intercourse  more 
advantageous,  or  more  satisfactory,  after  separation 
than  before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than 
friends  can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faith- 
fully enforced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among 
friends  ? 

Where  has  the  argument  against  the  constitutional 
right  of  secession  been  more  tersely,  yet  more  com- 
pletely set  forth,  than  in  these  words:  "Perpetuity  is 
implied  if  not  expressed  in  the  fundamental  law  of  all 
national  governments.  .  .  .  Continue  to  execute  all  the 
express  provisions  of  our  National  Constitution,  and 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  295 

the  Union  will  endure  forever;  it  being  impossible  to 
destroy  it,  except  by  some  action  not  provided  for  in 
the  instrument  itself."  And  where  has  ever  the  ab- 
surdity of  the  argument  for  the  right  of  secession, 
derived  from  the  general  doctrine  of  State  rights,  been 
more  sharply  exhibited  than  in  a  sentence  or  two  of 
his  first  message:  "If  all  the  States  save  one  should 
assert  their  right  to  drive  that  one  out  of  the  Union, 
it  is  presumed  the  whole  class  of  seceder  politicians 
would  at  once  deny  the  power,  and  denounce  the  act  as 
the  grossest  outrage  upon  State  rights.  But  suppose 
that  precisely  the  same  act,  instead  of  being  called 
driving  the  one  out,  should  be  called  the  seceding  of 
the  others  from  it — it  would  be  exactly  what  the 
seceders  claim  to  do;  unless,  indeed,  they  make  the 
point,"  he  adds  with  an  irony  not  less  cutting  because 
it  is  gentle,  "unless  they  make  the  point,  that  the  one, 
because  it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do  what  the 
others,  because  they  are  a  majority,  may  not  right- 
fully do." 

In  his  entire  treatment  of  the  right  of  secession,  the 
game  sharp  and  destructive  analysis  is  shown.  Thus: 
"A  part  of  the  present  National  debt  was  contracted 
to  pay  the  old  debt  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall 
leave,  and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself?  If  one  State 
may  secede,  so  may  another;  and  when  all  shall  have 
seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts.  Is  this  quite 
just  to  creditors?" — how  his  lips  must  have  smiled  as 
he  wrote  the  question!  "Did  we  notify  them  of  this 
sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their  money?" 
Again :  "The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States 
have  accepted  the  provision,  that  the  United  States 
shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  Repub- 


296        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

lican  form  of  government.  But  if  a  State  may  law- 
fully go  out  of  the  Union,  having  done  so  it  may  also 
discard  the  Republican  form  of  government.  So  that 
to  prevent  its  going  out,  is  an  indispensable  means  to 
the  end  of  maintaining  the  guarantee  mentioned;  and 
where  an  end  is  lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispen- 
sable means  to  it  are  also  lawful  and  obligatory." 

As  further  illustrative  of  the  same  property  and  tend- 
ency of  his  mind,  remember  a  sentence  or  two  from 
his  letter  to  those  in  Kentucky  who  though  loyal  to  the 
Government  objected  to  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, and  wished  it  recalled:  ''It  shows  a  gain  of  a 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and 
laborers  [for  the  Union  cause].  Now  let  any  Union 
man  who  complains  of  the  measure  test  himself,  by 
writing  down  in  one  line,  that  'he  is  for  subduing  the 
Rebellion  by  force  of  arms';  and,  in  the  next,  that  'he 
is  for  taking  these  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  men 
from  the  Union  side,  and  placing  them  where  they 
would  be  but  for  the  measure  which  he  condemns.' 
If  he  cannot  face  his  cause  so  stated,  it  is  because  he 
cannot  face  the  truth." 

So,  in  a  letter  written  much  earlier,  to  those  at  the 
West  who  objected  to  his  policy:  "You  isay  that  you 
will  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  Some  of  them  seem  to  be 
willing  to  fight  for  you,  but  no  matter.  Fight  you 
then  exclusively  to  save  the  Union.  I  issued  the  proc- 
lamation on  purpose  to  aid  you  in  saving  the  Union. 
Whenever  you  shall  have  conquered  all  resistance  to 
the  Union,  if  I  shall  urge  you  to  continue  fighting,  it 
will  be  an  apt  time  for  you  to  declare  that  you  will 
not  fight  to  free  negroes.  I  thought  that  in  your 
struggle  for  the  Union  to  whatever  extent  the  negroes 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  297 

should  cease  helping  the  enemy,  to  that  extent  it 
weakened  that  enemy  in  his  resistance  to  you.  Do  you 
think  differently?  I  thought  that  whatever  negroes 
can  be  got  to  do  as  soldiers,  leaves  just  so  much  less 
for  white  soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it 
appear  otherwise  to  you?  But  negroes,  like  other 
people,  act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they  do  any- 
thing for  us,  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them  ?  If  they 
stake  their  lives  for  us,  they  must  be  prompted  by  the 
strongest  motive,  even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And 
the  promise,  being  made,  must  be  kept." 

It  is  evident  that  before  a  mind  so  careful,  so  per- 
spicuous, so  analytic  as  this,  there  was  but  little  chance 
for  sophisms  to  stand;  and  that  whatever  secured  the 
assent  of  one  so  accustomed  to  logical  processes,  and  to 
clear  discriminations,  was  likely  at  least  to  have  much 
in  its  favor,  if  not  to  be  finally  accepted  and  ratified 
by  the  public  judgment.  But  the  faculty  of  careful 
ratiocination  is  not  synonymous  with  practical  sagac- 
ity; and  a  mind  addicted  to  the  logical  exercise  may 
be  even  fatally  narrowed  thereby — losing  in  general 
perceptive  sensibility^  in  administrative  skill,  and  in 
breadth  of  reason,  while  it  gains  in  particular  dia- 
lectical force.  In  attempting  to  explain,  then,  the 
unrivaled  personal  position  attained  by  Mr.  Lincoln, 
the  singular  power  exercised  by  him,  not  only  over 
public  affairs,  but  over  the  sentiments  and  convictions 
of  the  people,  and  over  the  general  mind  of  mankind, 
it  is  of  cardinal  consequence  to  observe,  that  with  this 
careful  precision  of  thought  he  combined  a  really 
supreme  common  sense;  a  practical  sagacity,  so  intui- 
tive and  enlightening  that,  though  it  did  not  keep  him 
from  committing  mistakes,  it  kept  him  from  any  fatal 


298       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

error,  and  justified  always  that  confidence  in  his  plans 
which  at  first  it  inspired. 

His  mind  possessed  scope,  as  well  as  sharpness.  He 
looked  on  the  right  hand,  and  on  the  left,  before  he 
smote.  His  reason  saw  before  and  after;  and  in  the 
clear  comprehension  of  results,  and  of  the  methods 
by  which  to  attain  them,  his  judgment  showed  itself 
as  discursive  and  prescient^  as  his  power  of  analysis 
was  trenchant  and  fine.  Here  was  really  the  center  of 
his  strength;  the  fruitful  source  of  his  success  as  a 
statesman.  And  when  associated,  as  it  was,  with  the 
character  we  have  sketched,  and  with  a  tenacious  and 
patient  will,  it  goes  very  far  toward  explaining  his 
power,  and  interpreting  his  work. 

There  is  a  showy  but  dangerous  kind  of  mind  some- 
times employed  in  the  offices  of  statesmanship,  whose 
power  lies,  and  also  its  peril,  in  what  may  be  called 
intellectual  constructiveness.  It  deals  largely  with  the 
abstract.  It  is  mighty  in  making  paper  governments. 
Its  schemes  express  ideal  conceptions;  and  it  counts 
it  almost  a  degradation  to  stoop  to  consider  practical 
necessities.  It  theorizes  splendidly  on  what  ought  to 
be,  and  insists  that  the  facts  shall  correspond  with  the 
theory ;  or,  if  either  must  give  way,  that  the  facts  shall 
be  displaced  to  make  room  for  the  theory.  The  vast, 
intricate,  gradual  administration  of  public  affairs, 
which  contemplates  many  interests,  and  has  to  deal 
with  great  masses  of  men,  it  would  mold  relentlessly 
by  preconceived  metaphysical  plans;  and  it  is  always 
unsatisfied,  until  the  two  distinctly  correspond. 

There  is  much  that  is  striking  in  this  style  of  mind. 
It  is  apt  to  win  a  large  share  of  admiration,  especially 
among  the  studious  and  refined.     It  is  ati  important 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  299 

element^  no  doubt,  in  public  counsels;  because,  when, 
arrayed,  as  it  usually  is,  in  speculative  opposition  to 
the  actual  governing  forces  in  a  nation,  its  criticisms 
are  helpful.  They  tend  to  expand  the  horizon  of  rulers, 
and  to  lift  toward  the  austere  levels  of  reason  what 
might  otherwise  sink  to  the  plane  of  expediency  and 
political  tactics.  If  its  shining  air-palaces  do  not  be- 
come solid  terrestrial  successes,  they  yet  hold  before 
men  the  ideal  forms  of  public  development;  and  the 
workers  beneath  may  build  better  and  higher  for 
having  surveyed  them. 

But  when  such  a  mind  is  placed  itself  at  the  head 
of  affairs — unless  it  has  that  reach  of  vision,  with  that 
vividness  of  perception,  which  belong  only  to  the 
highest  genius,  and  unless  possessed  of  a  knowledge  of 
facts  that  is  well  nigh  omniscient — it  is  sure  to  be 
found  incompetent  to  its  task.  Especially  in  diflScult 
and  critical  times,  when  great  elemental  forces  are 
evolved  beneath  and  overhead,  when  the  whirlwinds  of 
passion  are  loosed  from  their  chambers,  and  sudden 
currents,  which  no  charts  show,  are  hurled  to  and  fro 
with  fierce  velocity,  while  the  nation  drifts  and  drives 
before  them  in  unexpected  directions — such  a  mind  as 
this  is  the  poorest  of  pilots.  Its  beautiful  schemes  no 
more  match  the  emergency  than  ingenious  theorems 
arrest  the  typhoon.  It  wants  tact,  invention,  insight, 
hardihood.  Losing  sight  of  the  headlands,  it  fails  to 
make  allowance  for  variations  of  the  compass.  It  does 
not  hear  the  boom  of  the  surf  on  the  rocks  to  leeward. 
The  awful  volume  and  onset  of  the  storm  are  too\ 
much  for  its  theoretic  navigation ;  and  the  crew  must 
mutiny,  and  put  a  more  practical  man  at  the  head,  or 
crew  and  ship  will  go  to  the  bottom. 


300        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

Not  such,  certainly,  was  the  mind  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Men  quarreled  with  him  sometimes,  because  he  had 
not  more  of  this  wholly  intellectual  and  ethical  tend- 
ency. But  if  he  had  had  more,  the  nation  and  the 
world  might  not  to-day  have  been  his  mourners. 

There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  cheap  and  sterile 
species  of  shrewdness,  which  often  calls  itself  common 
sense — which  sometimes  even  passes  for  such,  when  it 
is  installed  in  positions  of  influence — which  makes 
nothing  of  principles,  but  everything  of  what  it  con- 
ceives to  be  "facts."  It  has  no  ideal;  but  takes  its 
suggestions  from  the  newspapers,  from  the  caucuses, 
from  the  last  man  who  speaks.  Its  plans  are  molded 
by  no  ethical  harmonies,  by  no  fitness  even  to  serve 
great  ends,  but  by  immediate  personal  influences.  It 
prides  itself  on  being  exclusively  practical;  on  aiming 
to  conserve  what  already  exists,  to  hold  parties  to- 
gether, to  smooth  away  differences,  and  to  reconcile  by 
a  dexterous  manipulation  antagonist  interests.  It  dis- 
credits the  higher  nature  of  the  people,  and  thinks 
anything  can  be  carried  by  a  skillful  and  timely 
handling  of  conventions.  It  has  faith  in  one  thing : — 
political  management.  It  knows  one  rule : — to  do  what 
is  popular.  It  is  constant  to  one  purpose: — to  keep 
things  quiet.  It  sometimes  achieves  in  peaceful  days 
a  transient  success,  and  wins,  perhaps,  from  the  more 
unthinking,  a  superficial  applause.  But  its  end,  even 
then,  is  generally  failure;  since  it  never  awakens  a 
generous  impulse,  and  never  inspires  any  general  con- 
fidence. And  in  times  of  imminent  public  peril,  it  is 
not  insufficient  only,  but  essentially  dangerous.  Trivial 
by  nature,  when  the  pressure  comes  upon  it,  it  first 
becomes  trickish,  and  then  becomes  treacherous.    Los- 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  301 

ing  head  altogether,  in  the  final  crisis,  it  is  likely  to 
carry  everything  that  depends  upon  it  into  sudden  and 
uttermost  wreck. 

Such  has  been  the  stj'le  of  mind  too  often  exhibited 
among  those  who  have  ranked  as  political  leaders,  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  in  our  country  and  time.  Such 
was,  perhaps,  the  style  of  mind  men  feared  would 
appear  in  President  Lincoln,  before  they  had  had  ex- 
perience of  him.  But  such,  thank  God !  was  as  far  as 
possible  from  being  the  type  or  the  parallel  of  the 
mind^  which  by  degrees  was  brought  out  in  him. 

Not  addicted  to  theorizing,  and  dogmatic  specula- 
tion, in  no  sense  a  doctrinaire,  he  was  not  either  a  man 
of  expedients ;  a  simply  shrewd,  unfruitful  manager  of 
political  affairs.  Clear-sighted  by  nature,  he  had  kept 
his  judgment  healthy  and  strong,  by  intercourse  with 
men,  and  by  a  pure  and  manly  life ;  and  so  he  was  ready 
without  being  rash,  wary  and  cool,  without  the 
slightest  timidity.  Quick  to  perceive,  he  was  slow  to 
decide,  offering  liberal  hospitality  to  all  discreet  coun- 
sels, and  determined  to  discover  what  was  best  on  the 
whole,  whether  it  agreed  with  any  theory  or  not.  And 
when  immense  exigencies  suddenly  confronted  him,  he 
kept  his  balance;  he  was  not  bewildered  in  the  crisis; 
and  if  he  did  not  show  that  marvelous  genius  which 
illuminates  all  things  with  one  broad  flash,  he  showed 
an  intuitive  and  large  common  sense;  a  calm,  per- 
sistent, wide-sighted  sagacity;  that  quality  of  mind 
which  enables  its  possessor  to  see  principles  clearly, 
but  to  see  also  the  governing  practical  necessities  amid 
which  those  principles  must  be  unfolded ;  which  makes 
him  wise  in  selecting  his  methods,  and  sure,  if  not 
swift,  in  accomplishing  his  ends.    He  showed,  in  other 


302        LINCOLN  MEMOKIAL  ADDRESSES 

words,  not  indeed  in  an  absolute  degree,  but  in  a  very 
high  and  remarkable  degree,  precisely  that  species  of 
mental  ability  which  an  intelligent  democracy  craves 
in  its  ruler;  precisely  that  which  was  needed  for 
the  times;  precisely  that  without  which  a  showy 
faculty  for  theorizing,  or  a  mere  trained  political 
shrewdness,  would  infallibly  have  brought  us  to  speedy 
destruction.  Through  this  he  did  his  unequaled  work 
for  the  land  and  the  world.  And  this  will  always 
shine  paramount  in  him,  while  his  history  is  read. 

Observe  what  illustration  it  found  in  his  action; 
how  continual,  and  how  manifold. 

When  he  came  into  power  the  nation  was  as  a  com- 
pany lost  in  the  woods ;  with  sudden  gulfs  sinking  be- 
fore it ;  with  stealthy  robbers  lurking  near ;  with  utter 
darkness  overhead ;  the  sun  gone  down,  the  light  of  all 
the  constellations  quenched.  No  man  knew  certainly 
what  to  do,  which  way  to  turn,  on  whom  to  rely.  There 
was  danger  in  advancing,  perhaps  greater  in  delay; 
danger  that  everything  precious  might  be  lost ;  danger, 
even,  that  the  travelers  themselves,  in  their  dark  fear 
and  furious  haste,  might  turn  on  each  other  with 
deadly  blows.  You  remember  what  an  infinite  jargon 
of  counsels,  from  all  presses,  forums,  individual 
speakers^  rent  and  vexed  the  gloomy  air;  with  what 
passionate  eagerness  the  public  sought  on  every  side 
for  some  avenue  of  escape — urging  the  adoption  of  one 
course  to-day,  and  of  another,  its  opposite,  to-morrow. 
All  voices  sounded  strange  in  the  darkness;  all  paths 
were  obliterated;  all  bearings  lost.  There  was  a 
prodigious  power  in  the  nation;  but  it  was  feverish, 
headstrong,  chaotic.  There  was  a  terrific  onset  to  be 
met.    The  past  showed  no  instances  by  which  to  in- 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  303 

struct;  the  future  no  outlet,  toward  which  to  invite. 
It  seemed  impossible  that  any  one  man  should  be  able 
to  hold  and  lead  the  country ;  especially  that  one  with- 
out wide  fame,  without  large  experience,  without  the 
prestige  of  previous  leadership,  should  be  able  to  guide 
it  into  safety. 

Measure  then  the  results  to  which  we  have  come, 
against  the  conditions  in  which  we  stood,  and  say  if 
anything  short  of  a  sagacity  that  seems  providential 
could  have  brought  us  out  of  darkness  into  day ;  along 
precipice  and  pitfall,  and  through  the  valleys  of  strife 
and  woe,  to  the  sunlighted  summits  on  which  we  rest. 
There  is  nothing  accidental  in  this  result.  No  happy 
chances  secured  it  for  us.  The  unusual  wisdom  of  him 
who  led  us  is  demonstrated  by  it; — a  ynsdom  more 
remarkable,  because  more  rare,  than  any  specific 
mental  faculty ;  more  lofty  than  eloquence,  more  illus- 
trious than  song. 

And  when  we  examine  the  path  which  he  trod,  how- 
ever at  the  time  we  criticized  his  stepSj  our  impression 
of  this  great  property  in  him  becomes  more  vivid.  You 
can  hardly  touch  a  point  in  his  policy  where  it  does  not 
appear. 

The  tentative  nature  of  his  early  administration, — 
his  delays  to  act,  by  which  men  were  irritated,  and  at 
which  they  sneered,  as  showing  his  want  of  a  positive 
purpose, — yet  proved  in  the  end  to  have  been  indis- 
pensable to  make  the  action,  when  it  was  taken,  uni- 
versally acceptable.  In  the  particular  form  of  his 
measures,  as  much  as  in  the  measures  themselves,  in 
the  very  times  at  which  they  were  initiated,  this 
sagacity  is  discovered.  His  radicalism  showed  it;  for 
it  was  always  conservative  and  rational,  not  startling 


304        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

the  timid.  His  conservatism  showed  it;  for  it  was 
always  intelligent,  not  blind,  liberal  and  persuasive, 
and  never  imperious. 

lieviewing  at  a  glance  the  whole  series  of  his  policy 
in  these  swift-whirling  and  perilous  years,  we  may  say 
that  in  these  five  points  especially,  his  sagacity  was 
revealed.  First:  in  his  early  perception  of  the  fact 
that  compromise  was  impossible,  and  that,  with  the 
existing  views  and  temper  of  the  rebel  leaders  and  the 
disloyal  people)  the  issues  at  stake  between  them  and 
the  Government  had  got  to  be  settled  by  the  stern  and 
fearful  arbitrament  of  battle.  Second:  in  his  imme- 
diate determination  that  the  war  should  commence 
through  some  unjustified  act  of  aggression  on  the  part 
of  the  revolt,  and  not  through  any  offensive  display  of 
purpose  and  power  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
Third:  in  his  tenacious  adherence,  from  first  to  last, 
to  the  one  great  end  to  be  secured  by  the  war, — the 
maintenance  of  the  Government  in  all  its  prerogatives, 
the  maintenance  of  the  republic  in  its  territorial  and 
legal  integrity;  and  in  his  strict  subordination  to  this 
of  all  that  he  did,  of  all  his  refusals  to  take  any  action. 
Fourth:  in  the  constant  flexibility  of  his  methods,  his 
readiness  to  try  one  thing  or  another,  to  see  which 
instrument  would  be  most  effective  for  accomplishing 
the  work  in  which  there  was  neither  rule  to  guide  nor 
example  to  instruct  him;  and  in  his  constant  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  the  march  of  events  was  govern- 
ing him,  while  he  in  turn  was  influencing  it,  and  that 
his  highest  wisdom  was  to  discern  what  Providence 
meant  to  accomplish,  and  to  move  in  the  line  of  its 
battalions.  And,  finally:  in  the  absolute  fixedness  of 
purpose  with  which  he  avoided  foreign  complications. 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  305 

and,  postponing  everything  else,  held  the  nation  to 
its  one  work  of  subduing  rebellion,  and  making  the 
Government  everywhere  supreme. 

Take  all  these  related  facts  into  view, — observe  how 
early  they  began  to  appear,  and  how  consistent,  stead- 
fast, deliberate,  was  that  administration  of  public 
affairs  which  they  represent;  how  largely  this  was 
original  with  himself,  how  freely  at  any  rate  he  ac- 
cepted it,  and  how  persistently  he  carried  it  out, — and 
surely  his  immense  sagacity  can  need  no  other  demon- 
stration. It  was  his  policy.  The  symmetry  of  it  shows 
the  singleness  of  the  brain  by  which  it  was  molded. 
He  surrounded  himself  with  eminent  counselors.  It 
was  one  fruit  of  his  wisdom  that  he  did  so.  And  they, 
no  doubt,  often  influenced  him,  while  in  turn  in- 
structed or  corrected  by  him.  But  he  was  always  the 
head  of  the  Cabinet ;  so  that  it  sometimes  was  matter  of 
complaint  that  he  did  not  yield,  as  others  would  have 
done,  to  the  different  preferences  or  the  adverse  deci- 
sions of  those  combined  in  it.  The  truth  is,  his  policy 
had  to  be  his  own.  He  took  light  gladly,  but  he  could 
not  take  law,  from  other  minds.  And  while  his  coun- 
selors must  always  have  a  share,  and  that  a  large  one, 
in  the  credit  and  renown  which  belong  to  his  policy, 
his  name  must  be  always  first  and  supremely  identi- 
fied with  it.  He  adopted  it  because  he  saw  it  the 
best;  and  whatever  opposition  or  whatever  applause 
it  afterward  encountered,  when  his  mind  was  made 
up  it  never  seems  to  have  subsequently  wavered.  He 
knew  his  plan,  what  the  issue  proved  it,  the  wisest 
thing. 

His  sagacity  was  shown,  almost  as  much  as  in  his 
policy  itself,  in  the  modes  and  means,  in  the  very  forms 


30G        LINCOLN  MEMORL\L  ADDRESSES 

of  statement  and  illustration,  by  which  he  presented 
it  to  the  public.  He  could  be  eloquent,  if  he  would. 
Remember  the  close  of  his  Ohio  letter:  "Peace  does  not 
appear  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it  will  come  soon, 
and  come  to  stay;  and  so  come  as  to  be  worth  the 
keeping.  It  will  then  have  been  proved,  that  among 
freemen  there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  from  the 
ballot  to  the  bullet,  and  that  they  who  take  such  appeal 
are  sure  to  lose  their  case,  and  pay  the  cost.  And 
then  there  will  be  some  black  men  who  can  remember 
that  with  silent  tongue  and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady 
eye,  and  well-poised  bayonet,  they  have  helped  man- 
kind on  to  this  great  consummation ;  while  I  fear  that 
there  will  be  some  white  men  unable  to  forget  that  with 
malignant  heart,  and  deceitful  speech,  they  have  striven 
to  hinder  it." 

But  generally  the  most  marked  feature  of  his  style 
was  its  utter  simplicity. 

The  usual  plethoric  platitudes  of  State-papers  were 
curiously  contrasted  by  his  simple  and  sinewy  sen- 
tences. If  an  editor  wrote  to  him,  he  wrote  back  to 
the  editor,  and  published  his  answer.  And  when  the 
people  had  got  over  their  astonishment  at  his  audacity, 
they  believed  all  the  more  in  his  utter  sincerity.  No 
man  ever  lived  who  spoke  more  directly  to  the  heart  of 
the  people.  Critics  might  quarrel  with  his  rhetoric 
sometimes;  but  critics  themselves  could  not  gainsay 
the  fact  that  his  homely  and  pithy  words  had  a  power 
beyond  all  ornate  paragraphs.  With  what  absolute 
completeness  and  precision  was  the  origin  of  the  war 
explained  by  him,  and  the  course  of  the  people  con- 
cerning it  justified,  in  this  one  sentence :  "Both  parties 
deprecated  war.     But  one  of  them  would  make  war, 


RICHAKD  S.  STORES,  JR.  307 

rather  than  let  the  nation  survive ;  and  the  other  would 
accept  war,  rather  than  let  it  perish; — and  the  war 
came !" 

His  very  colloquialisms  were  mighty  for  his  service. 
"We  must  keep  still  pegging  away,"  he  said,  in  the 
gloomiest  period  of  the  war ;  and  every  plain  man  saw 
his  duty,  and  was  nerved  to  perform  it.  "One  war  at  a 
time" : — all  the  orators  could  not  answer  it ;  a  unani- 
mous press  could  not  have  overborne  the  impression  it 
made.  "The  United  States  Government  must  not 
undertake  to  run  the  churches" : — the  dictum  is  worth 
a  half-dozen  duodecimos  on  the  complex  relations  of 
Church  and  State.  "You  needn't  cross  a  bridge  until 
you  have  got  to  it" : — if  men's  minds  were  not  relieved 
of  their  fears  concerning  the  effect  of  a  general  emanci- 
pation, they  were  at  least  widely  persuaded  to  post- 
pone these,  by  the  pithy  advice.  "The  central  idea  of 
secession,"  he  said  in  one  of  his  messages,  "is  the 
essence  of  anarchy":  and  elaborate  pages  could  not 
have  said  more  than  that  one  apothegm.  It  is  a  head- 
line for  copy  books  for  all  time  to  come. 

Always,  the  sagacity  which  had  selected  his  policy, 
and  which  usually  chose  with  great  final  correctness 
the  men  and  the  times  for  putting  it  in  practice,  was 
shown  as  well  in  the  homely  phrase,  or  proverb,  or 
anecdote,  which  made  it  familiar  throughout  the  land. 
More  than  his  opponents  knew  at  the  time,  more  than 
the  people  themselves  were  aware>  he  argued  the  ques- 
tions of  his  administration,  he  carried  the  public  judg- 
ment to  his  conclusions,  by  those  quaint  words  which 
all  remembered,  and  which  were  repeated  with  laugh- 
ing satisfaction  at  thousands  of  firesides.  His  maxims 
were  more  effective  than  his  messages;  and  a  score  of 


308        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

presses  could  not  have  rivaled  the  service  of  some  of 
his  stories. 

With  intuitive  skill  he  selected  his  policy.  With  a 
skill  almost  equal  he  made  the  people  aware  what  it 
was.  And  when  it  had  been  adopted  by  him  he  carried 
it  out,  as  I  said  before,  with  a  power  of  will  perhaps  as 
remarkable  as  was  the  sagacity  which  had  planned  it. 

He  had  not  certainly  what  is  called  "an  iron  will." 
Well  for  him  that  he  had  not !  It  might  have  involved 
the  destruction  of  his  influence,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the 
interests  he  was  set  to  conserve.  For  iron  breaks  when 
it  is  bent;  and  no  man  lives,  or  ever  lived,  who  could 
have  kept  his  will  unbent,  amid  such  times  as  we  have 
passed.  Accumulated  defeats,  disheartening  opposi- 
tions, complaints  without  reason,  intolerable  delays, — 
the  resolution  that  boasts  itself  inflexible  might  have 
been  fractured  beneath  the  burden,  and  the  very  pillars 
of  the  Government  have  been  unsettled.  But  President 
Lincoln  had  what  was  better;  a  will  like  strands  of 
tempered  steel ;  flexible  in  small  things,  elastic,  pliant, 
and  always  sheathed  in  a  playful  gentleness,  but  not 
liable  to  be  snapped,  however  it  was  bent,  and  spring- 
ing back  from  every  pressure  in  its  primitive  toughness. 
Men  called  him  undecided,  vacillating,  uncertain;  and 
so  he  was  in  minor  matters — in  great  things,  even,  till 
the  argument  was  closed  and  his  mind  was  made  up. 
But  when  it  was,  the  same  men  called  him  obstinate, 
headstrong;  for  nothing  could  change  him.  He  dis- 
missed more  than  once  his  most  prominent  generals; 
and  all  the  pressure  of  persons  or  parties  could  no  more 
change  his  purpose  afterward  than  it  could  shake  the 
base  of  the  Alleghanies.  He  retained  his  Cabinet, 
against  the  threat  of  serious  divisions  in  the  party 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  309 

which  had  chosen  him.  He  would  not  go  to  war  with 
England,  in  the  case  of  the  Trent,  he  would  not  get 
involved  in  a  controversy  with  France,  on  the  question 
of  the  French  occupation  of  Mexico,  though  friends 
insisted  on  his  taking  high  ground,  and  enemies  sneered 
without  stay  or  stint  because  he  did  not.  He  launched 
the  bolt  of  his  proclamation,  against  the  slavery  which 
had  nourished  rebellion,  though  a  thousand  voices 
prophesied  disaster. 

Deliberate,  till  at  times  he  almost  seemed  dilatory, — 
unwilling  to  commit  himself  till  all  sides  of  a  question 
had  been  thoroughly  canvassed,  and  ready,  to  the  very 
verge  of  a  fault)  to  hear  to  the  last  the  humblest  repre- 
sentative of  any  interest  or  any  opinion, — he  was  yet 
as  staunch  as  the  ribs  of  the  Ironsides  when  his  course 
was  decided;  and  it  was  like  pulling  against  gravita- 
tion, to  try  thenceforth  to  detain  or  deflect  him.  The 
tenacity  of  his  will  was  like  that  of  his  muscle,  which 
could  hold  out  an  axe  at  arm's  length  without  a  quiver 
when  others  drooped.  Its  influence  reminded  one  of 
the  suck  of  the  under-drift  on  a  sea  beach ;  which  does 
not  appear  upon  the  surface,  and  makes  no  visible 
wrestle  with  the  waves,  but  which  carries  everything 
into  its  current,  and  compels  the  strongest  and  skill- 
fullest  swimmer  to  yield  himself  vanquished. 

Let  one  other  fact,  then,  be  brought  to  view,  and  the 
secret  of  his  power  is  perhaps  all  before  us.  It  is  that 
his  powers  were  so  simple,  native,  and  unostentatious, 
that  they  hardly  impressed  men  while  he  was  living 
as  so  great  as  they  were;  they  excited  no  jealousies; 
they  startled  no  fears;  and  the  popular  trust  in  them 
was  unapprehensive.  At  the  same  time  they  were  so 
original,  constitutional,  so  independent  even  of  train- 


310       LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

ing,  much  more  of  adventitious  aids,  that  they  always 
were  ready  for  instant  use,  and  only  grew  more  ade- 
quate to  their  work,  as  its  pressure  upon  them  became 
more  tremendous.  So,  again,  he  had  a  power  which 
more  brilliant  men,  or  more  literary  men,  would  cer- 
tainly have  wanted;  and  all  his  force  became  most 
effective. 

If  genius  had  taken  the  place  of  his  sagacity,  men 
might  have  been  afraid  of  him,  as  they  are  of  the 
lightning.  It  is  splendid,  but  fitful;  and  its  bolts  may 
drop  where  they  are  not  expected.  But  his  force  was 
so  quiet,  patient,  pervasive,  that  it  wrought  like  the 
vital  force  in  nature,  which  is  not  exhibited  in  any 
flash,  but  which  streams  unheard  through  the  breasts 
of  the  earth,  and  comes  to  its  expression  with  certainty 
though  with  silence,  in  bud  and  fruit,  and  an  infinite 
verdure.  If  it  had  been  the  result  of  education,  and 
political  practice,  or  of  special  accomplishments,  there 
would  have  been  something  precarious  in  it.  It  would 
have  depended  somewhat  on  circumstances.  It  would 
have  been  liable  to  be  shaken,  if  not  shattered,  when 
new  and  great  emergencies  were  met.  But  being  so 
native  and  intrinsic  as  it  was,  so  wholly  the  result  of 
his  special  constitution,  it  not  only  gave  no  sign  of 
yielding,  it  became  ever  more  thorough  and  masterly, 
as  it  was  summoned  by  grander  cares  to  new  exhibition. 
His  nature  grew  only  larger,  and  more  capable,  as  time 
went  on.  His  faculties  were  not  wearied  by  the  work 
they  were  put  to,  and  remained  to  the  end  unworn 
and  fresh. 

This  essential  naturalness,  this  silentness  and  con- 
stancy, marking  his  powers,  were  not  favorable  perhaps 
to  his  instant  hold  on  the  public  admiration.  Men  were 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  311 

not  surprised  by  him  into  bursts  of  applause.  They 
nowhere  saw  one  mighty  figure,  cloud-enveloped,  iris- 
crowned,  riding  with  splendid  supremacy  on  the  storm, 
or  heard  a  voice  as  of  Jove  himself  commanding 
peace;  and  for  the  time  they  felt  disappointed.  But 
his  power  was  more  universal  in  its  reach  because  it 
was  quiet;  and  now  that  it  is  gone  we  honor  it  the 
more,  because  it  was  essential,  not  artificial,  serene 
and  patient,  not  impulsive  and  scenic. 

As  the  sunshine  draws  less  admiration  than  the 
picture,  but  is  recognized  still  as  a  far  grander  good ; 
as  the  river  is  not  so  much  praised  as  the  fountain,  but 
with  its  inexhaustible  current  is  a  millionfold  more 
mighty  and  precious;  as  the  stars  do  not  interest  our 
fancy  so  much  as  the  glittering  fireworks  which  cor- 
ruscate  beneath,  while  yet  they  hold  the  earth  itself 
on  its  calm  poise, — so  other  statesmen  have  won  more 
applause  than  was  given  to  him.  In  times  of  paroxys- 
mal excitement  they  have  seemed  to  show  a  more 
supreme  and  sudden  power.  But  now  that  he  is  gone, 
we  miss  the  sagacity  which  lighted  up  intricate  paths 
like  the  sunshine.  We  miss  the  deep  and  constant 
currents  of  thought  and  will  which  bore  great  burdens 
without  a  ripple.  We  feel  how  grandly  secure  we  were 
while  the  star,  now  hidden  in  higher  splendors,  held 
up  with  its  unfailing  influence  the  very  structure  and 
frame  of  the  Government. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — Such  was  the  man  for 
whom  we  mourn ;  and  such  the  position  in  which 
Providence  had  placed  him.  Think  then  a  moment  of 
the  work  which  he  wrought  in  it,  and  all  our  reasons 
for  gladness  and  for  grief,  on  this  day  set  apart  to 
commemorate  him,  will  be  before  us. 


312        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

With  the  character  I  have  sketched,  to  give  him  at 
once  impulse  and  law,  with  such  effective  powers  for 
its  instruments,  with  so  many  trained  and  skillful 
minds  eager  to  help  him,  and  amid  the  unparalleled 
opportunities  which  by  his  times  were  opened  to  him, 
it  might  have  been  expected  that  his  work  should  be 
a  great  one.  It  could  not  even  be  matter  of  surprise 
that  it  should  have  a  colossal  character; — like  the 
reach  of  the  river,  along  which  he  had  guided  his  flat 
boat  in  his  youth ;  like  the  stretch  of  the  prairies,  on 
which  he  had  builded  his  home  as  a  man.  And  yet 
how  far,  in  its  actual  development,  it  transcended 
even  such  expectations !  How  singular  it  is  among  the 
recorded  achievements  of  man!  How  plainly  is  re- 
vealed in  it  a  higher  than  any  human  will,  laying  out 
and  arranging  the  mighty  scheme! 

When  he  took  in  hand  the  reins  of  the  Government, 
the  finances  of  the  country  seemed  hopelessly  deranged ; 
and  after  many  years  of  peace  it  was  difiBcult  to  raise 
money,  at  unprecedented  interest,  for  its  daily  use. 
And  when  he  died — after  such  expenditures  as  no  man 
had  dreamed  of,  through  four  long  years  of  devastating 
war — the  credit  of  the  republic  was  so  firmly  estab- 
lished that  foreign  markets  were  clamorous  for  its 
bonds,  and  the  very  worst  thing  which  ^  could  have 
happened,  his  own  destruction,  did  not  depress  by  one 
hair's  breadth  the  absolute  confidence  of  our  own 
people  in  them.  When  he  came  to  Washington,  the 
navy  at  the  command  of  the  Government  was  scattered, 
almost  beyond  recall,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  was 
even  ludicrously  insufficient  for  instant  needs.  He  left 
it  framed  of  iron  instead  of  oak,  with  wholly  new 
principles  expressed  in  its  structure,  and  large  enough 


KICHARD  S.  STORKS,  JR.  313 

to  bind  the  continent  in  blockade,  while  it  made  the 
national  flag  familiar  on  every  sea  which  commerce 
crosses.  He  found  an  army  remotely  dispersed,  almost 
hopelessly  disorganized,  by  the  treachery  of  its  officers ; 
with  hardly  enough  of  it  left  at  hand  to  furnish  a  body- 
guard for  his  march  to  the  capital.  He  left  a  half- 
million  of  men  in  arms,  after  the  losses  of  fifty  cam- 
paigns,— with  valor,  discipline,  arms,  and  generalship, 
unsurpassed  in  the  world,  and  admonitory  to  it.  He 
found  our  diplomacy  a  by-word  and  a  hissing  in  most 
of  the  principal  foreign  courts.  He  made  it  intelligent, 
influential,  respected,  wherever  a  civilized  language  is 
spoken. 

In  his  moral  and  political  achievements  at  home,  he 
was  still  more  successful.  He  found  the  arts  of  indus- 
try prostrated,  almost  paralyzed,  indeed,  by  the  arrest 
of  commerce,  the  repudiation  of  debts,  the  universal 
distrust.  He  left  them  so  trained,  quickened,  and  de- 
veloped, that  henceforth  they  are  secure  amid  the 
world's  competition.  He  came  to  Washington,  through 
a  people  morally  rent  and  disorganized; — of  whom  it 
was  known  that  a  part  at  least  were  in  full  accord  with 
the  disloyal  plans;  and  concerning  whom  it  was  pre- 
dicted by  some,  and  feared  by  many,  that  the  slightest 
pressure  from  the  Government  upon  them  would  resolve 
them  at  once  into  fighting  factions.  He  laid  heavy 
taxes,  he  drafted  them  into  armies,  he  made  no  effort 
to  excite  their  admiration,  he  seemed  to  throw  down 
even  the  ancient  muniments  of  their  personal  liberty; 
and  he  went  back  to  his  grave  through  the  very  same 
people  so  knit  into  one,  by  their  love  for  each  other 
and  their  reverence  for  him,  that  the  cracking  of  the 
continent  hardly  could  part  them. 


314        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

At  his  entrance  on  his  oflfice  he  found  the  leaders  of 
the  largest,  fiercest,  and  most  confident  rebellion  known 
to  history,  apparently  in  all  things  superior  to  himself 
— in  capacity,  in  culture,  in  political  experience,  in 
control  over  men,  in  general  weight  with  the  country 
itself.  And  when  he  was  assassinated,  he  left  them  so 
utterly  overthrown  and  discomfited  that  they  fled  over 
sea,  or  hid  themselves  in  women's  clothes.  A  power 
it  had  taken  thirty  years  to  mature,  a  power  that  put 
everything  into  the  contest — money,  men,  harbors, 
homes,  churches,  cities,  states  themselves — and  that 
fought  with  a  fury  never  surpassed,  he  not  only  crushed 
but  extinguished  in  four  years.  A  court  that  had  been 
the  chief  bulwark  of  slavery,  he  so  reorganized  as  to 
make  it  a  citadel  of  liberty  and  light  for  all  time  to 
come.  He  found  a  race  immeshed  in  a  bondage  which 
had  lasted  already  two  hundred  years,  and  had  been 
only  compacted  and  confirmed  by  invention  and  com- 
merce, by  arts,  legislations,  by  social  usage,  by  ethnic 
theories,  and  even  by  what  was  called  religion ;  he  pre- 
tended to  no  special  fondness  for  the  race;  he  refused 
to  make  war  on  its  behalf ;  but  he  took  it  up  cheerfully 
in  the  sweep  of  his  plans,  and  left  it  a  race  of  free 
workers  and  soldiers. 

He  came  to  the  capital  of  an  empire  severed,  by  what 
seemed  to  the  world  eternal  lines ;  with  sectional  inter- 
ests, with  antithetic  ideas,  with  irremovable  hatreds, 
forbidding  reconstruction.  He  left  it  the  capital  of  an 
empire  so  restored,  that  the  thought  of  its  division  is 
henceforth  an  absurdity;  with  its  unity  more  complete 
than  that  of  Great  Britain ;  with  its  ancient  flag,  and 
its  unchallenged  rule,  supreme  again  from  the  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf.    Nay :  he  found  a  nation  that  had  lost  in 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  JR.  315 

a  measure  its  primitive  faith  in  the  grand  ideas  of  its 
own  Constitution ;  and  he  left  that  nation  so  instructed 
and  renewed,  so  aware  of  the  supremacy  of  principles 
over  forces,  so  committed  to  the  justice  and  the  liberty 
which  its  founders  had  valued,  that  the  era  of  his 
power  has  been  the  era  of  its  new  birth;  that  its 
history  will  be  nobler  and  more  luminous  forever  for 
his  inspirations. 

Not  public  achievements  are  his  only  memorial.  His 
influence  has  come,  like  the  "clear  shining  after  rain," 
on  the  lesser  interests,  on  the  private  career,  on  the 
personal  character  of  the  people  whom  he  ruled.  He 
educated  a  nation,  with  the  Berserkers'  blood  in  it, 
into  a  gentleness  more  strange  than  its  skill,  and  more 
glorious  than  its  valor;  a  gentleness  which  even  the 
sight  of  starved  men  could  not  sting  into  ferocity. 
Through  his  personal  spirit  he  restrained  and  exalted 
the  temper  of  a  continent;  and  our  letters  are  to  be 
nobler,  our  art  more  spiritual,  our  philanthropy  more 
generous,  our  very  churches  more  earnest  and  free, 
because  of  what  we  have  learned  from  him.  The  public 
estimation  of  honesty  is  brighter.  The  sense  of  the 
power  and  grandeur  of  character  is  more  intimate  in 
men's  minds.  We  know  henceforth  what  style  of  man- 
hood America  needs,  and  in  her  progress  tends  to 
produce.  We  have  a  new  courage  concerning  the 
future.  We  have  a  fresh  and  deeper  sense  of  that 
eternal  Providence  which  he  recognized. 

Not  to  our  country  has  his  work  been  confined. 
Across  the  sea  extends  his  influence.  It  vibrates  this 
hour  around  the  world;  and  despotic  institutions  are 
less  secure,  the  progress  of  liberty  throughout  Europe, 
throughout  Christendom,  is  more  rapid  and  sure,  by 


316        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

reason  of  that  which  he  has  wrought.  The  peoples  are 
more  hopeful,  and  the  bayonets  are  more  thoughtful. 
The  millennium  of  nations  is  nearer  than  it  was.  The 
race  itself  is  lifted  forward,  toward  the  gates  of  mingled 
gold  and  pearl  that  wait  to  swing  on  silent  hinges, 
into  the  age  of  freedom  and  of  peace. 

All  this  is  his  work.  Of  course  he  has  had  immense 
forces  to  work  with ;  great  counselors  to  suggest,  great 
captains  and  admirals  to  accomplish ;  a  million  brains 
to  be  his  helpers ;  a  people  full  of  thought  and  zeal  to 
inspire  his  plans,  and  push  them  on.  Of  course  God's 
power,  in  which  he  trusted,  has  gone  before  and 
wrought  beside  him;  and  he  himself,  aided  by  it,  has 
"builded  better  than  he  knew."  But  still  the  work 
continues  his:  since  he  has  accomplished  it,  while 
another  man,  with  different  powers  and  a  different 
temper,  in  the  same  position,  could  not  have  performed 
it.  Without  signal  genius,  or  learning,  or  accomplish- 
ments, but  with  patience,  kindness,  a  faithful  will,  a 
masterly  sagacity, — planted  in  times  full  of  peril,  yet 
opulent  also  in  immense  opportunities,  working  with 
instruments  so  manifold  and  mighty  as  have  been 
hardly  before  intrusted  to  man,  and  never  before  so 
nobly  used, — it  has  been  his  to  do  this  work;  to  make 
his  country  one  and  grand;  to  make  the  principles,  in 
which  it  has  its  highest  glory,  supreme  forever;  to 
make  the  world  more  hopeful,  and  more  free ! 

In  this,  then,  is  the  final  vindication  of  his  fame; 
the  grandest  memorial  of  his  character  and  power 
which  it  has  yet  been  given  to  any  man  to  build  on 
earth.  He  did  it  so  naturally,  that  hardly  at  any 
point  does  it  give  us  the  impression  of  extraordinary 
exertion.     He  did  it  so  silently,  that  the  world  was 


KICHARD  S.  STORES,  JR.  317 

startled  with  extremest  surprise  when  it  found  it 
accomplished.  He  did  it  so  thoroughly,  that  even  his 
death  could  not  interrupt  it,  could  only  complete  and 
crown  the  whole.  He  might  well  leave  a  work  so  grand 
when  the  capstone  had  been  placed  upon  it.  The  flag 
just  lifted  anew  on  Fort  Sumter, — symbolic  as  it  was 
of  the  war  concluded,  of  the  nation  restored, — might 
well  be  the  signal  for  his  departure.  More  than  almost 
any  other  man,  he  could  say  with  the  Lord,  looking 
back  on  his  ministry,  "It  is  finished !" 

Reviewing  this  work,  so  vast,  so  enduring,  and  so 
sublime,  and  looking  up  unto  that  which  is  now  for  him 
its  consummation,  all  eulogy  is  inadequate,  if  it  be  not 
in  vain.  The  monuments  we  may  build — and  which  it 
is  our  instinct  and  our  privilege  to  build,  in  all  our 
cities  as  well  as  at  the  capital,  in  this  city  by  the  sea, 
as  well  as  in  that  where  his  dust  sleeps — are  not 
needful  to  him,  but  only  to  the  hearts  from  which  they 
arise,  and  the  future  generations  which  they  shall 
instruct.  From  the  topmost  achievement  yet  realized 
by  man,  he  has  stepped  to  the  skies.  He  leads  hence- 
forth, the  hosts  whom  he  marshaled,  and  who  at  his 
word  went  forth  to  battle,  on  plains  invisible  to  our 
short  sight.  He  stands  side  by  side  once  more  with  the 
orator,  so  cultured  and  renowned,  with  whom  he  stood 
on  the  heights  of  Gettysburg;  but  now  on  hills  where 
rise  no  graves,  and  over  which  march,  in  shining  ranks, 
with  trumpet  swells  and  palms  of  triumph,  immortal 
hosts.  He  is  with  the  fathers  and  founders  of  the 
republic;  whose  cherished  plans  he  carried  out,  whose 
faith  and  hope  had  in  his  work  their  great  fruition. 
He  is  with  all  builders  of  Christian  States,  who,  work- 
ing with  prescient  skill  and  will,  and  with  true  conse- 


318        LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

cration,  have  laid  the  foundations  of  human  progress 
and  made  mankind  their  constant  debtor. 

The  heavens  are  his  home.  But  the  earth  and  its 
records  will  take  care  of  his  fame.  For  of  all  whom  he 
meets  and  dwells  with  there,  no  one  has  held  a  higher 
trust ;  no  one  has  been  more  loyal  to  it ;  no  one  has  left 
a  work  behind  more  grand  and  vast.  And  so  long  as  the 
Government  which  he  re-established  shall  continue  to 
endure;  so  long  as  the  country  which  he  made  again 
the  home  of  one  nation  shall  hold  that  nation  within 
its  compass,  and  shall  continue  to  attract  to  its  bosom 
the  liberty-loving  from  every  land;  so  long  as  the 
people  which  he  emancipated  shall  make  the  palmetto 
and  the  orange  tree  quiver  with  the  hymns  of  its 
jubilee;  so  long  as  the  race  which  he  has  set  forward 
shall  continue  to  advance,  through  brightening  paths, 
to  the  future  that  waits  for  its  swift  steps,— a  fame  as 
familiar  as  any  among  men,  a  character  as  distin- 
guished, and  an  influence  as  wide,  will  be  the  fame,  the 
character,  and  the  influence,  of  him  who  came  four 
years  ago  an  unknown  man  from  his  home  in  the  West, 
but  who  has  now  written  in  letters  of  light,  on  pages 
as  grand  and  as  splendid  as  any  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  the  illustrious  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


LINCOLN'S  GETTYSBURG  SPEECH 

Address  at  the  Dedication  of  Gettysburg  Cemetery, 

November  19,  1863 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  upon  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 
whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and 
so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battlefield  of  that  war.  We  are  met  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  it  as  the  final  resting-place  of  those  who 
here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It  is 
altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot 
consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here  have  conse- 
crated it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The 
world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say 
here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It 
is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to 
the  unfinished  work  that  they  have  thus  far  so  nobly 
carried  on.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated 
to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us ;  that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  the  cause 
for  which  they  here  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devo- 
tion; that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  the  dead  shall 
not  have  died  in  vain ;  that  the  nation  shall,  under  God, 
have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 

319 


